


Back to the Future

by BonneyQ



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: F/M, Gruvia - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-01
Updated: 2015-10-16
Packaged: 2018-01-10 18:15:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 32,036
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1162940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BonneyQ/pseuds/BonneyQ
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They stayed in a bubble suspended in time for seven years, so they knew Time Travel. But no experience would prepare them to have a Time Mage messing with their lives. {Gruvia} {Time Travel Fanfic}</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Part I

**Author's Note:**

> I blame this fanfiction on an unhealthy amount of Doctor Who and the show’s amazing timey wimey stuff.
> 
> WARNING: There will be sexy times in chapter 2; nothing too graphic, but be warned. If you don’t think you can handle, please, don’t read it.

It was weird to be somewhere and in another completely different place in a blink of an eye, especially if you were in midst of battle and then in the middle of an unknown forest. Gray Fullbuster felt more than confused once he saw himself in that exact situation, alongside with his friend Juvia Lockser.  
  
“What the hell?” Gray looked around, waiting for his enemy to appear from his hiding place and then spotted his blue haired friend, lying on the floor. The man carefully walked towards the woman, seizing her wounds: both were worst to wear, but nothing life threatening. “Juvia.” Gray called her and the woman groaned in response.  
  
“Where are we?” She asked, still trying to understand the situation they were in and grabbing the back of her head.  
  
“No idea.” Gray helped the blunette to her feet while grabbing his side – the guy they were fighting managed to hit him hard on the ribs. “We need to find the others.” Juvia was about to answer him when a very skinny man, with short blonde hair appeared from between the trees; wearing some kind of fancy brown suit. Gray immediately took a defensive posture, quickly putting himself in front of his friend.  
  
The mysterious man waved his hand and offered them a bright smile – Gray noticed that he had wrinkles around his blue eyes when smiling. “Hello there, Gray. Juvia – looking beautiful as always.”  
  
“Do we know you?” The Ice Mage asked, barely noting that Juvia was finally on her feet.  
  
“Not yet.” The man chuckled. “Well… I know you, but you’ll know me yet. This is one of the things you’ll get it when you live it.” Seeing the confusion in their expressions, the blonde offered his hand. “My name’s Nhoj – yes, awful name, my mom’s fault: she lost a bet, or something.”  
  
The two Fairy Tail mages stared at the man like he was crazy and neither made a move to take his hand, so ‘Nhoj’ used it to scratch the back of his head. “O-kay, that’s cool too. You were much better before.” He sighed. “I always like meeting people for the first time, it’s all: ‘Hi, nice to meet you.’ In your case, though, you were ‘nice to see you again’. Always surprising to meet people that already met you.” He said pointedly. “Don’t worry: I would be pretty rude to someone who took me to a place I have no idea where it is. Well… maybe not. I’m a little bit of an adventurer.”  
  
“You brought us here? What the hell for?” Gray snarled, eyeing the man with anger – while they were talking, his friends needed him in battle. “Where are we?”  
  
“Oh, you are still in Magnolia.” Nhoj opened his arms and stared at them as if it was more than obvious that their city was a forest. “The right question is: when are you?” the blonde’s expression became darker for a split of a second, but both mages noticed.  
  
Gray looked over his shoulder, where Juvia was standing behind him. They shared a look, which said that they had to discover as much about the situation as they could, since they were both hurt and couldn’t just kick their way out. Looking back at Nhoj, the dark haired mage narrowed his eyes. “Fine. When are we?”  
  
“x154.”  
  
There were a few moments of silence while the younger mages processed the information. They were in the past. Not only in the past, but more than six hundred years in the past; but thankfully, they were part of Fairy Tail and strangest things happened. Actually, Time Travel was a bit of a cliché for them after being suspended in time in a bubble for seven years; except that no one had traveled back that far before.  
  
“You brought us back in time?” Juvia asked with wide eyes, stepping to stay by Gray’s side.  
  
“Yeap.” Nhoj smiled.  
  
“Why?” The blunette frowned while Gray watched the interaction between them, trying to assemble the other man’s reaction to Juvia’s questions and maybe catch something.  
  
“Because it’s what always happens.” The blonde shrugged.  
  
“What? Bring us back!” Gray watched Juvia step towards the man, but grabbed her wrist to make her stay put: Nhoj seemed like a nice guy, but he did take them to the past, which meant that he was powerful and they were injured.  
  
“No can’t do.” The man in a suit shrugged and shook his head. “I am a Time Mage and I can see what will happen and you two” Nhoj pointed at the Fairy Tail Mages “would’ve died if you stayed in battle – and trust me, you cannot die just yet.” He sighed. “Look, it will be just for a little while, until time is right again – right now is all… wobbly.”  
  
“What the hell are you talking about?” Gray hissed to the man.  
  
“This, right here” the blonde man pointed to the couple, to himself and then to the forest around them, “is a fixed point in time: you two need to stay here until I meet you.”  
  
“So, we will just trust you and stay in x-one-hundred-fifty-fucking-four?”  
  
“Yes.” Nhoj said nonchalantly. “The next time I see you two, I won’t know you because I haven’t met you yet.”  
  
“Excuse me?” Gray frowned.  
  
“He’s a Time Traveler: he doesn’t meet people in the same order they meet him.” Juvia said slowly, staring at the older man to see if her theory was right.  
  
“Ah, a girl after my heart; that’s why I’ve always had a crush on Juvia: she gets me.” Nhoj winked at Juvia and the Water Mage blushed while Gray rolled his eyes in annoyance. “She’s right, though. I only know you two now because you came and talk to me.”  
  
Gray frowned. “But how did we know how to…?”  
  
“Timey wimey stuff. Don’t worry about it.” Nhoj waved his hand to dismiss the subject. “When you do find me, tell me to get you to two weeks after you left. Don’t forget: two weeks. It’s the amount of time you always spend away.”  
  
“Will you believe us?” The Ice Mage asked.  
  
“I came back to get you, didn’t I?” Nhoj winked at them before clapping his hand one time, excitedly. “Now…. Gotta go! Places to see, people to meet.”  
  
“Wait! What will we do here for two weeks?” Gray asked as he saw the man turn around to leave.  
  
“Oh no, you got me wrong.” The blonde did a complete 360. “You won’t stay here for two weeks. You need to come back to your own time after two weeks I took you.” The younger mages tried to talk, but Nhoj didn’t let them. “Get comfortable, kids: you’ll stay here for a while. And, you should have a plan before people find you in about…” he looked down to his wrist, where there was no watch whatsoever “fifteen minutes: remember that this is the x-hundreds. Behave like them.” He waved good bye. “Ta.”  
  
“Wait a minute…” Gray stepped closer to where the man was, but in a blink of an eye, the older mage was not there anymore.  
  
“He’s gone.” Juvia whispered and touched Gray’s forearm. The couple stayed in silence for a few moments. “What do we do now?  
  
Gray had to blink a few times to gather his mind together. He had been in battle ten minutes before and now he stood with Juvia more than six hundred years in the past. They were both injured – gladly nothing that could kill them – and with no money or much information about that time.  
  
“Okay.” The Ice Mage cleared his throat. “Okay, if we believe in him what do we know about the x-hundreds?”  
  
“Women did not show this much of their bodies.” Juvia pointed to her own; her dress was torn apart in many places, including somewhere really close to her breasts. They definitely should get her dressed properly before people thought she was a wanton.  
  
“And I am sure men didn’t wear these kinds of clothes as well.” Gray looked down to his flowery shirt, cargo pants and boots. Seeking in his brain any other information he might have about those years, Gray paled considerably when one though came to mind. “We need to find somewhere safe. As fast as we can.”  
  
Juvia noticed his distress. “What is it?”  
  
“Dragons.” Gray whispered. “This is the Dragon Era.”  
  
“Oh.” Gray saw the blunette pale as well, recalling their encounters with dragons, while putting hand over her mouth.  
  
“Dragons use us as food and Zealconis told us that there were many wars before a dragon give humanity Slayer magic.” The Ice Mage walked closer to a tree and leaned in, the blunette following his actions. “We don’t know if our friends will even know what happened to us, or how to bring us back – if they can, that is. And only the gods know when and if we’ll see that crazy bastard again.”  
  
“So, we’re stuck in x154.” The Water Mage sighed after helping Gray sit on the floor (she knew he was hurting) and joined him after a few seconds-  
  
“For now.” Gray groaned in protest when the pain on his ribs made itself known. “At least Zeref isn’t even born yet. If we had to deal with that man again, I’d be really pissed off.”  
  
“Agreed.” Juvia chuckled but stopped when her head throbbed in pain, the couple stayed in silence for a few moments. “If what he said is true, Gray-sama, people will find us soon. Maybe we should have a story to tell them to why we look this way.”  
  
The Ice Mage nodded. “Let’s say we were attacked by… I don’t know. What are filthy dark guilds called around this time?”  
  
“Road thieves?” Juvia suggested.  
  
“The day road thieves can make a number on us, it’s the day I’ll be completely out of my game.” Gray was cranky: he hated being in a situation where he knew little about. Plus the fact he was in pain didn’t agree with his mood either.  
  
“For now, they will have to think so. We can say five men did it.” Juvia suggested and the man groaned. “Six, then. Big and strong.” This time he groaned in agreement and they fell into silence, both trying to figure it out what to do next. After a few minutes, they heard voices coming from in between the woods. Juvia grabbed Gray’s hands on hers, squeezing it. “We will be fine.” At least she hoped it sounded better than she felt.  
  
“Of course we will.” Gray scoffed, but didn’t remove his hand from hers, taking the small comfort of not being alone.  
  
#  
  
As it turned out, Magnolia wasn’t much of a city yet, just a village with a few cabins and shops, but not near the amazing city it would turn out to be in six hundred years. Gray and Juvia managed to convince the men that they were robbed and attacked a few hours before.  
  
Not sure of what they would find once they met the village’s leader, the Ice Mage pretended to need help walking to keep Juvia as close as possible; these were dark ages and as much as he could easily fight fifty men at time, they also needed somewhere safe to stay during the time they waited for Nhoj’s return.  
  
The village’s leader was a big and large man with brown small eyes and dark hair called Mirak. He took a moment to look at the young couple, took in their appearance and heard their story about being mugged. When asked about their families, Juvia stepped in and told him that their families died of an illness a few months before, and since there was nothing else there for them so they wanted to seek somewhere else to live.  
  
The blunette even managed to squeeze a few tears out, and for a moment, Gray was impressed with her acting skills – he helped as much as he could, looking down on her, sad, but aware enough of their surroundings to bolt if necessary.  
  
“We can help you and your woman.” Mirak said after Juvia ‘calmed down’ and Gray felt his cheeks grow warmer. “If you two are looking for somewhere to stay and if you help out with the village, we’ll let you stay.”  
  
“I am very good with hunting and my…” Gray hesitated a bit before continued “woman is good with… erm… fishing. We will help as much as we can.”  
  
“Good.” The village leader nodded. “You can stay at my stable tonight, I have a vacant booth.” His brown eyes hardened. “But if you two bring us trouble, we will kick you out.”  
  
“We won’t bring trouble.” Gray said, hoping that he was right, but knowing deep down that trouble always found Fairy Tail mages, it didn’t matter in which point in time.  
  
“I’ll send my daughters with bandages, a blanket and some clothes for you.” The older man nodded to one of the hunters who found them in the woods. “Take them there, Kire.”  
  
“Thank you, Mirak.” Gray said respectfully, trying to be in the older man’s good side.  
  
They followed the man called Kire to the stable, where there were three horses in their booths while the fourth one was empty and that’s where they would stay the night, apparently. Gray could see the confusion and the blush in Juvia’s face, so, he knew exactly what she was going to ask as soon as they were alone.  
  
As expected, as soon as they were sure Kire was gone, the blunette whispered loud enough for him to hear (which wasn’t too hard, since they still were close to each other, even though the Ice Mage stopped his pretend of leaning on her). “G-Gray-sama, what…?”  
  
“Look,” he whispered as well “this is more than six-hundred years before our time, and even though they don’t seem like barbarians or something, this is a time when women who are alone are considered prey. You are young and pretty, they can use you for much more than slavery, and I don’t think they will let us stay together just because we are friends, so, yeah: while we’re here, I’ll let them call you my woman so I can protect you, okay?” Juvia nodded with wide eyes: she hadn’t thought about it. “If anyone asks, we got married a few weeks ago. Don’t wander off alone, and let’s try to keep our magic to ourselves as much as we can; magic was not well seen until they needed it to contain the dragons. Agreed?”  
  
“Yes.” The blunette nodded.  
  
“At least we don’t seem like prisoners.” Gray said with the same low voice. “We will have to spend the night in a stable, but they don’t seem like they will hurt us.”  
  
“We can’t trust an assumption, though.” Juvia whispered back at him. “We need to keep our guards up. They seemed to believe in us, but…”  
  
“We never know, yes.” The Ice Mage finished her sentence.  
  
“Sorry to interrupt.” Two girls entered the stable; the older seemed to be fifteen and the younger, not more than ten; both looked like Mirak with their brown eyes and dark hair, but with much softer facial features. Gray took a step back away from the blunette while Juvia smiled kindly to the girls.  
  
“Father told us to bring blankets and some medicine for your husband.” The younger girl said, shyly as her sister put the blankets down over a chair, while she pointed with her head to the tray in her hands, which contained a few bandages, a pot of tea and a glass. “This is scally tea, for his wounds.”  
  
“Thank you…” The Water Mage took the tray from the younger girl’s hand.  
  
“Miranda Necasi.” The girl answered with pride. “And this is my sister Natalie Necasi. Our father is the village’s leader.”  
  
“Oh, I see.” Juvia chuckled. “Nice to meet you, Miranda and Natalie Necasi.” The blunette smiled to both of them, seeing the young girl seemed to like surnames. “I am Juvia Lockser and this is Gray Fullbuster.”  
  
“Aren’t you two married?” The older of the two, Natalie, asked in confusion. “Shouldn’t you have his last name?”  
  
“She does.” Gray answered instead of the Water Mage – who was turning into a very bright shade of red. “It’s… hm… We got” he coughed “married just a couple of months ago. She’s not used to it yet.”  
  
“It is very new.” Juvia shrugged. It was the truth anyways; they have been ‘married’ for two hours and if Juvia wasn’t so tired, she would’ve been freaking out. But she felt sore and with a headache threatening to split her head in two – she was hit a little bit too hard before Nhoj brought them to the past. And looking to Gray, she knew he needed to rest as well.  
  
“I see.” Natalie giggled in a way that made Juvia blush even harder; it was obvious that the girl thought they were still in the honeymoon phase. “Come on, Miranda. They want to be alone.”  
  
“That’s not…” Gray tried to say – also blushing –, but both girls were already leaving the stable. “…what we… oh, never mind.” He walked towards the chair which contained their new clothes. The fabric was rough and would mostly likely scratch, but Gray didn’t care. He took his new shirt, but left the pants alone: his were in good shape still. He grabbed Juvia’s new dress as well and handed to her – it was also rustic and with a green shade, long sleeved and should cover her figure nicely (Gray didn’t like the way some men stared at her. “Here. You should cover yourself.” She took the dress and watched as the Ice Mage turned around. “Change now. It’s better during the night, less likely to have people around.”  
  
“Thanks.” Juvia whispered, cheeks still rosy. The Water Mage stared at Gray’s back for a moment before taking her dress off. It was weird, changing with him a few steps away, but it was necessary. Plus, she knew the man wouldn’t look (even if she had nothing against it). Perhaps the next morning, after resting she would think about it properly, but for the moment, she just wanted to lie down for a bit. “You can turn around now.” The blunette told him and Gray did exactly that and he saw the dress was a little loose. “Juvia needs to look at your wounds, Gray-sama.” She told him gently. “Just wait a moment.” She grabbed one of the blankets and covered the floor. “Sit down.”  
  
Groaning and with no intention of fighting, Gray did as he was told. He watched as Juvia grabbed a flannel and the bandages before settling in front of him. With the flannel, she began to clean his skin the best she could, paying attention to the cuts. “Gray-sama?” Juvia called and the Ice Mage hummed in acknowledge. “This is a little swollen, you should use...”  
  
“Not here.” Gray whispered and then touched her face lightly. “We are not alone right now.” He looked towards the door, where underneath it they could see a shadow. “Whoever it is, just arrived to keep an eye on us.”  
  
Juvia bit her lower lip and leaned towards his touch, eyes closed. “We should keep watch, then. Discretely.”  
  
“Yes, we should.” Gray leaned over so their foreheads touched – to anyone watching, they were just a couple of loving fools when in reality they were communicating (and to tell the truth Juvia was enjoying the contact a little too much).  
  
Hating herself for prying away from his touch, Juvia got up to fetch the tea to her friend. She heard of scally, a weed which relaxed the muscles and make whoever drank, sleepy and it was exactly what Gray needed at the moment. “Here, drink this.”  
  
“What was that again?” Gray accepted the cup and smelled the sweet scent.  
  
“Scally.” The Water Mage answered. “It will make you feel a little better.”  
  
The man shrugged and drank it, making a face with the sweetness – he never were too fond of it – but accepted the second cup Juvia poured him; they didn’t have their time’s medicine or magic to heal, so he had to take whatever they got to heal.  
  
“Sleep. Juvia will take the first shift.” She pushed him to lie down as gently as she could and even though Gray didn’t want to, he found himself lying on the floor.  
  
“No, I…” The Ice Mage tried, but the woman shushed him.  
  
“You are injured and need rest.” She put the teapot and the cup away. “Juvia can’t sleep right now because of her head, but you can. Don’t worry, Juvia will call you in a few hours.” She sat by his side again and told him quietly: “Sleep, Gray-sama.”  
  
“Wake me up in a couple of hours.” He mumbled, already sleepy and closing his eyes. Whatever scally was, it was clear it made him sleepy and the part of his brain that was still aware of his whereabouts noted to never take the damn thing again.  
  
“We’ll be alright, Gray-sama.” He heard Juvia tell him while caressing his hair. It was nice, he decided, as sleep enveloped his mind.  
  
“I sure hope so.” He managed to say before unconsciousness overcame him.  
  
#  
  
“You didn’t wake me.” Gray mumbled when he finally make out where he was. It was confusing, but he soon recalled the last day’s adventure and that he and Juvia were now in the past.  
  
The blunette chuckled with his tone of offence. “You needed to rest and Juvia couldn’t sleep just in case she did have a concussion, so it would be a waste to wake you up for nothing.”  
  
“Thank you, but it was silly of you.” The Ice Mage groaned when seated, but it wasn’t as bad as the other day; he was just sore and in a day or two he would be better. Maybe the scally helped after all, even if it made him sleepy.  
  
“It’s alright, Juvia will sleep tonight, though.” She pointed to a tray not too far from them. “The girls were kind enough to bring us some food. It’s just bread and wine, but it’s nice enough; Juvia already had her part.”  
  
“Yes.” Gray’s stomach growled. It didn’t matter what it was, as long as it was eatable. “I am starving.” He accepted the piece of bread Juvia offered him and ate happily.  
  
“Are you feeling better?” She asked and he nodded, taking a big sip of wine – which was strong, but thankfully not enough to make them drunk – and the woman sighed in relief. “Good. We need a plan, Gray-sama.”  
  
“I think that we can’t do much until we have somewhere permanent to stay.” The Ice Mage informed her. “You heard Mirak yesterday: we need to contribute. I know how to hunt; I do have some talents I can use.”  
  
“And Juvia can fish with her own talents.” She followed his line of thinking, choosing not to talk about their magic as well. “But this is a fishing village as far as we could see.”  
  
“Yes.” Gray agreed. “That’s why my hunting would bring us an advantage.” He ate another piece of bread. “We could trade for things we need.”  
  
“Good thinking, young man.” Mirak said from the stable’s door, while eyeing the couple with an amused stare. “You look much better than yesterday; but I guess that cleaning up and a nice night’s sleep in a beautiful woman’s arms can do wonders.” Both younger mages blushed hard as the man laughed. “Still getting used to it, I see.”  
  
“Thank you for helping us last night.” Gray got up from the ground with a pained groan; his ribs bothered a bit yet and he chose to ignore the older man’s remark. “You took a leap of faith.”  
  
“I did put men outside to watch you, though.” Mirak pointed out.  
  
“Understandable.” The Ice Mage nodded. “We are outsiders.”  
  
“I’m glad you understand.” The older man nodded. “And I’ve met many bad people, nasty human beings and real scum: I know when I’m looking to a bad person. Yesterday, all I saw in your eyes were confusion, and desire to protect your woman,” Mirak gave Gray a pointed look. “which I completely understand. You, young man, just want somewhere to have a life with your wife.”  
  
“I…” Gray felt Juvia get closer to him and nodded to the Village’s leader. “Yes, that’s what we want.”  
  
“There’s an abandoned house about half an hour north, by foot, close to the river that you two can use.” Mirak told them. “No one wants to move so far away of the Village – the previous owners were an old couple who died last year with no heirs, but the house is strong – and the earth is not fitting for a large harvest, but a small garden can be arranged and you can grow some vegetables.”  
  
“Thank you.” Juvia offered him a smile. “You are being very kind.”  
  
“Well, our village needs some young people to keep things fresh!” The older man shrugged. “Plus, I can’t send you two away with nowhere to go, no money and with no family to turn to. Who knows, maybe you can find a home here in our village.”  
  
Gray hesitated, knowing deep inside his heart that their home would always be back in Fairy Tail and in their own time, but Mirak didn’t know that. “Maybe we can.”  
  
“Good, good.” The village leader grinned. “Now, shall we look around the town? I can show the house later.”  
  
In its early days, Magnolia was a fishers town and pretty much just a small village close to the ocean, with no pavement streets and a few shops – it was nowhere near the big city they knew, but no less beautiful on its own rustic way. People stared at them as both walked by Mirak’s side, which was understandable, since the village couldn’t have more than one hundred people and they all seemed to know each other.  
  
After walking around for an hour or so, they started to walk towards North and during the way, Gray heard what Mirak talk about all the nice things about his town, while Juvia walked a little bit behind, taking in the beauty of the forest with the river running on their right side and also memorizing the path they took.  
  
The house Mirak talked about was a small cottage, located in a glade close to the river – about fifty meters away – and just as the older man said, it seemed to be holding up quite well and even had a small stable, big enough for one horse. The grass around it needed to be cut, but after, the place would be rather pretty.  
  
Of course, the cottage was dirty after being left alone for a year and there was a hole on the kitchen area ceiling, but apart from it, the house was livable and had furniture. There was only one room other than the bigger area – not even big enough to put a grown up’s proper bed. The other room was big enough to have two distinct areas: the kitchen (which thankfully contained some sort of stove) had a small table with four chairs, and the bedroom – with a double bed, a chest to keep clothes in, and a fireplace.  
  
“This will do to you, isn’t it right?” Mirak asked with a wide grin.  
  
“Yes, of course.” Gray answered with a nod. “Will we ever be able to repay you?”  
  
“I think you will.” The older man shrugged and offered them the bag he had been carrying. “There’s food for today, I’m afraid that’s all I can spare. You won’t be hunting a deer for a few days, but will be better suited for hunting a rabbit or something in the morning.”  
  
“Thank you, Mirak.” The Ice Mage thanked the other man with honesty. “I will repay you as soon as I can.”  
  
“Don’t worry about it.” He waved it off. “Where the world will we end when we refuse to help the ones in need?”  
  
#  
  
Juvia convinced Gray that they needed to use magic to clean the house and even deadly tired; she used water from the river to clean the bed mattress (and put it outside to dry even after she used water magic to remove it all), the ground and the furniture while Gray went out to find some wood to make a fire later and something to cover the hole in the ceiling and thankfully found it.  
  
The cottage would need another scrub once Juvia rested, but for the night, it was good enough. There was another dress and another shirt and pants inside the bad Marik gave them (thank the gods: they were really low in the clothing department) and Juvia went to take bath in the river by the end of the afternoon, changing her green dress to a light blue one.  
  
After washing the used gown, Juvia put it to dry outside and told Gray – who made a fire for them – that he should go take a bath himself, that the river was nice. They didn’t have much to eat, so it would just be the scally tea for them both that night.  
  
When the Ice Mage returned, bathed and with different clothes, Juvia told him to put the dirty ones close to the door so the next day she could take care of them.  
  
“You want to give me the sleepy tea again.” Gray smelled the sweet scent and frowned.  
  
“To both of us this time.” Juvia put a cup in front of him and not for the first time that day the man saw how tired she really was. “You need to rest too, Gray-sama, to completely heal.” He tried to argue, but the blunette shook her head and raised a hand to stop him. “If they wanted us dead, they would’ve killed us back in the village. Both of us need this; the best way of protecting ourselves is to be healthy to fight.”  
  
The logic was sound, he had to give her that. “Alright, you are right.” Gray drank his tea and watched as Juvia did the same. He poured them another for good measure – they were not have trouble to sleep that night, not when they were so exhausted. “In the morning I’ll do as Mirak said and see if I can find some rabbits. Only the gods know how long we’re going to be here. Could be ten days, could be ten months.”  
  
“Yes.” Juvia sighed. “We need more clothes and by the way the air is cold, winter will come soon and Juvia knows you don’t mind cold, but…”  
  
“You do, yes.” Gray finished his tea. “And I do mind the cold, I’m just more resistant: I can last longer than you, that’s all. We will need to prepare for winter. So many things to do…”  
  
“We will get it right.” Juvia finished her own tea and gathered their cups. “But for tonight, we need to rest.”  
  
“Yes, sure.” The Ice Mage got up from the chair and took his shirt off (he liked to sleep naked and knew that it was better to stay with his pants on, but he just couldn’t stay with a shirt on) and grabbed a blanket to be a makeshift pillow, throwing it on the floor next to the bed. He was halfway on kneeling when she felt a tiny hand envelop his.  
  
“Both of us need proper sleep and on a proper bed.” Juvia told him quietly and then pulled him towards the double bed.  
  
“I don’t mind sleeping on the floor.” The tea was working, because he just let her lead him.  
  
“Juvia does.” She kneeled on the bed and moved to the left side, just as Gray sat on it. “Don’t worry, Gray-sama… Juvia have shared beds with a man before and she behaved herself.” The Water Mage chuckled.  
  
“What? Who?” Gray looked over his shoulder, just to see the woman lying down on her claimed side of the bed.  
  
“Gajeel-kun.” Juvia patted the side that was supposed to be Gray’s and said man was glad that the only light inside the cottage came from the fireplace and even so, it wasn’t the best light: he was blushing with the sight, even when he knew she had no malice. Not that time. “When we were tracking Dark Guilds, it was better to sleep together for protection.”  
  
With a groan because of the dull ache coming from his ribs, Gray finally settled on the bed – it wasn’t exactly fluffy, but was soft enough for him to let out a moan of appreciation. He was so achy.  
  
“I see.” The Ice Mage said. “I had to share beds with people too. Most of them were kickers. Are you a kicker?”  
  
“Juvia never heard a complaint, so she’ll say no. You’ll have to tell me later.” She chuckled and Gray smiled in the darkness. The stayed in silence for a few moments. “It’s been a day and Juvia already misses our friends.” The blunette whispered; Gray could feel the crack of her heart as she said the words for the simple reason that he felt it too.  
  
“Me too.” He answered her with a voice as low as hers. “But you heard Nhoj, we will return.”  
  
“I know.” Gray felt Juvia turn and face towards the other side. “It doesn’t mean that it doesn’t hurt all the same.”  
  
#  
  
It took them three months of mutual frustration for him to kiss her. The fact that he woke up with her snuggled on him for about ninety days straight was not helping the Ice Mage to think less perverted thoughts.  
  
She would wake up first every morning to do her own chores and Gray always felt her weight being lift from his chest or how she gently unwrap his arms from around her body.  
  
Every night they would sleep in opposites sides of the bed, but in the morning, there they were, tangled in each other. The Ice Mage pretended not to wake up and she never uttered a word (he appreciated that, since he didn’t know what to do with the fact that he was a snuggler, apparently) about it.  
  
After three months on their own, they were feeling much more at ease in each other’s presence. Before going to sleep they would sit outside staring to the sky and sharing stories about their friends, about missions they took, about missions they would like to take.  
  
Some nights, Gray would use his magic to make miniatures of the members of Fairy Tail and those were silent nights, both hurting too much to say anything. But they were coping. They were together, at least. They came from the same time, they knew and missed the same people; they understood each other.  
  
Their cottage looked much better after they cut the high grass of the glade – Juvia asked for Gray to leave the part where there were a few flowers growing – and now there was rope for clothes to be hanged and a shack Gray made so he could have a place to take care of his hunt.  
  
With the deers Gray caught during those three months, they had managed to trade its meat for provisions such as food and clothing; the real merchant being Juvia – she said she got the ability of bargain for being a girl who liked to buy clothes “Some girls might not learn how to have a worthy shopping spree by paying less and taking more, but Juvia did.”, the blunette would say with pride. She made deals with the owner of the market, so, as long as they kept giving him meat, they had income of other essentials.  
  
But even if they were doing fine, it didn’t mean Gray wasn’t getting frustrated with their situation.  
  
He wanted to go back to his time, wanted to take a mission and fight friendly with his friends. He wanted to drink a beer from his own timer other than the sour ones from the x-hundreds. He wanted to be able to freely perform magic. He wanted his life to be normal again.  
  
He wanted not to feel normal to wake up during the night with her on his arms and just return to sleep after tightening his grasp on her. He wanted not to feel those stupid butterflies on his stomach when he made her laugh (those had been increasing for a long while now, but they seemed to be more and more frequent).  
  
He wanted the old normal, because the new normal was turning him into someone ridiculous.  
  
That end of the afternoon Gray decided to join Juvia on the river while she used her magic to catch a few fishes for their dinner after he arrived from the village – everything looked so not like home that made him even more frustrated than usual. She would raise her dress to her knees and watch the water to see when a fish would pass by so she could catch it. She was humming happily when he arrived, a basket with one small fish by the shore.  
  
“Hi, Gray-sama.” She looked over her shoulder with a smile on her lips, but when the Water Mage saw his troubled face, the smile faded and worry overcame her features. “What is it? What’s wrong?” Juvia started to walk towards him.  
  
“I want to get back.” Gray passed a hand through his hair. “This is too different of everything we know, Juvia. We don’t belong here.”  
  
“Gray-sama…” Juvia sighed. “I know this is difficult for you, but it isn’t on our hands.”  
  
“Do you? Do you know?” He didn’t mean to snarl at her or to sound heartless and harsh, but there were the words.  
  
“We don’t know how long we are going to stay here, Gray-sama. So yes, we need to make a life; we did not stop living just because we stepped back from our time.” The Water Mage told him. “We need to move on.”  
  
“I miss home too much to just move on.”  
  
“Juvia does too. They were your friends longer, but it doesn’t mean Juvia doesn’t miss them just as much.” The Water Mage’s eyes watered. “If Juvia is glad that she’s here with you? If she’s glad we are having some time alone? Yes, she is; you know she is. But she misses them too. She misses Gajeel-kun, and Cana-san, and Lisanna-san, and Natsu-san, Lucy-san, Levy-san, Lilly, Happy, Master… She misses all of them too. They are our family. But Juvia has faith that we will come back to them sooner or later.” Gray stared at her while a few stray tears fell. “So, while we are here, Juvia will continue her life until it is time for us to return and she will not feel bad about it.” She turned around to leave, but returned to catch the basket with the one fish she caught. Before going back to their cottage, she told him. “You need to find something to make you feel sane while you are here. Don’t let it go to your head.”  
  
He returned later that night; Juvia guessed that he spent the rest of the afternoon and the beginning of the night by the river to cool off, like he usually did when too stressed or just to be away from her for a few hours. The woman was already lying on the bed when he entered the house, she didn’t even stir – even though she was awfully relieved he was home. She chose not to confront him about their earlier discussion, it would only make him close up even more. Before, she would press him for answers, but now, after those three months they spent together almost without a break, she knew better how to handle him.  
  
The blunette heard the door close and then, after a few moments, footsteps. She heard a chair being pulled and silence for a minute – in which she guessed he was taking his shoes off. Gray carefully joined her on the bed, putting his arms around her the best he could, which was new (even if they woke up tangled in each other every morning, he never consciously wrapped his arms around her to go to sleep).  
  
“I’m sorry I was an idiot. It won’t happen again.” Gray whispered and hid his face on her hair.  
  
Feelings aside, Juvia raised a hand so she could put it on his hair, petting a bit. “Are you hungry? There’s food on the table.”  
  
“Thank you.” He answered, knowing that it was all good between them again, but made no move to get up and fetch said food and Juvia was torn between being happy that she was surrounded by his warmth or sad that it would be all she would ever have from him.  
  
“No problem.” She turned her body so she could face him. The woman offered him a small smile. “Juvia knows it’s difficult.”  
  
“I… I am glad that I am not alone.” Gray told her.  
  
“Me too.” She touched his cheek with tenderness and his eyes fluttered close with the contact.  
  
Just like that it seemed like something shifted between them, as if there was a burden being lift from their shoulders. The air between them changed the skin under Juvia’s hand heated up and when Gray opened his eyes, she saw a resolve in them… she saw something she couldn’t name, but always longed for.  
  
Maybe it was her who moved first by pure instinct, or maybe it was him; neither could tell. All they knew was that their lips were pressed, their hearts beating faster and their minds were blank for a moment. With the contact, both froze but as soon as their minds began to work again, their lips started to move together.  
  
Juvia’s hand, the one that touched his cheek remained in place as she put the other over his guild mark. Gray’s hands, though went to grab her hips to bring her body close to his. The Ice Mage was no expert on kissing, so, he followed instinct (he seemed to do a good job if the way Juvia kissed him back with enthusiasm when he coaxed her to open her mouth).  
  
It wasn’t at all weird to kiss Juvia in that manner; if anything, it felt like sanity was finally returning to his mind, that he was being grounded once more. It felt normal.  
  
When they came up for air, somehow the Ice Mage was half on top of her, their legs tangled while he rested his forehead on hers while catching his breath. Juvia remained with her eyes closed for a few moments before finally open them. The Ice Mage could see that she was happy but also confused by his sudden kiss.  
  
Not to leave anything left for her to wonder, Gray kissed her again, much softer that time – he took his sweet time to make up his mind, but once he did, there was no stopping him.  
  
“What does it mean, Gray-sama?”  
  
“That I found something to make me sane.”


	2. Part II

Gray decided that having a girlfriend was nice, especially one that was more than eager to have him in her arms all the time. Their making out sessions were frequent and some were really heated (one of them always stopped the other before things went ‘too far’ – they weren’t ready) and the subtle changes in the relationship were very nice, in Gray’s opinion.  
  
Instead of untangle herself from his arms in the morning – after he actually bring her closer to him before falling asleep –, Juvia would try to stay the longer she could and before getting up, she would kiss his cheek tenderly. Gray would still nap after, but when it was finally time to get up, he would and then find her, where she would tip toe and kiss his lips (she was always the one to kiss him in the mornings, not that he didn’t think it was nice). During the day each had their own chores, but when the day was over, they took their time with kissing and touching.  
  
They spent almost two months that way, until they couldn’t anymore – their kisses grew more and more passionate as time passed and it got into a point where it was inevitable to take the next step.  
  
It happened after the Village’s Festival. Mirak told both of them that they needed to go and mingle (Gray started to make a few friends and so did Juvia); and since they were too far away from the town to talk to people, the opportunity was good for them to socialize.  
  
Both had more fun that they thought it was possible – even when they were apart: Gray drinking with the men and Juvia talking to the women – there was nice food and when the band started to play and the Water Mage was shoved into Gray’s arms and they were forced to dance the upbeat tune, both laughed while trying to keep up with the other excited couples. They danced for a long time before the rain started to pour.  
  
Mirak offered them a room in his home, but they declined the offer, choosing to run home. They didn’t have much light, but the moon was full and wasn’t covered by clouds yet, so it was easy enough not to trip during their run.  
  
“I can’t believe it rained!” Gray laughed, closing the door as Juvia laughed with him, thankfully the fire hadn’t extinguished during the hours they spent at the Festival. “Couldn’t you have stopped it?”  
  
“It was natural rain, Gray-sama. Juvia can’t mess with it.” The blunette chuckled and she felt him wrap his arms around her waist from behind and kiss her cheek in a sweet way. “Summon it is easy, but stop real rain is bad.”  
  
“Whatever you say. We need to take these wet clothes, though, or we’ll get sick.” Gray released her and was about to step away when Juvia grabbed his hand, preventing him from going too far from her. “What is it?” He frowned in confusion.  
  
“Could you help Juvia?” She took her hair away off the way and looked over her shoulder. “Please?”  
  
Gray swallowed hard, knowing very well that she didn’t need his help to take her dress off, so… maybe it was her way to tell him… she was ready? He was ready, more than ready.  
  
“Yeah.” He cleared his throat and stepped close to her, but didn’t move to help her. “Sure. I can. Yep.”  
  
The blunette giggled when he didn’t make a move to undo the buttons. “Then do it.”  
  
Blushing, the Ice Mage reached for the first button with his breath caught on his throat – sure, he have touched Juvia’s bare skin during their multiple make out sessions and it felt nice, but in the back of his mind, he always knew they were not going further than a few feathered touches.  
  
With each button, more silky and fair skin appeared in front of his eyes and he could feel his groin reacting to it – yes, he’d seen her naked a few times (by accident and by choice) but nothing compared to be the one undressing her and to be able to gently run his fingers on her back.  
  
When the last button was undone – just above her bum, Gray noticed with an internal groan –, she turned around and they locked their eyes with each other’s. He couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t think, all he could do was wait to see what would be her next move. They always gave each other the opportunity to say ‘no’ and that pause was it. But Gray wasn’t saying it. Not that night. Not when they were both ready.  
  
As if in response to his unspoken question, she reached for his tugged shirt and pulled up – he offered no resistant as he raised his arms to help her out. After the Ice Mage was shirtless, Juvia started to push her own light blue dress down her shoulder, letting it fall to the ground; Juvia was completely naked in front of him.  
  
There wasn’t too much light in their cottage but the fire on the fireplace, but Gray could see Juvia’s brown eyes darkening, and the way her cheeks flushed and fast breathing; he imagined that he wasn’t much better.  
  
Juvia stepped closer to him and put one hand on his chest and he wondered for a second if she could feel its rapid beating. She probably could, since his heart seemed like a damn tambourine.  
  
She tip toed and kissed his lips, and it was all he needed to move his own body. He pulled her close to him and kissed her more and more heatedly now that their upper bodies had no clothing to prevent their skins to touch, and it felt marvelous.  
  
“Isn’t it too fast?” Gray whispered between kisses on her neck, but didn’t slow down a bit even after the question.  
  
“We’ve known each other for years now: Juvia thinks it’s too slow.” Her answer was followed by a moan and a kiss on her lips as he raised her enough so she wrapped her legs around his waist and he took her to their bed.  
  
#  
  
As it turned out, neither had experience with sex with other people, but both had very imaginative minds and instinct on their side; they knew what to do to make the other feel good in theory; reality was much more overwhelming.  
  
They kissed, sucked and bit each other’s skin, following the other’s reactions as guide. Somehow Gray lost his pants along the way – Juvia barely remember pushing it down – and the feel of him on top of her, with his erection pressing on her stomach sent a rush of adrenalin over her body. She wanted him so bad it hurts.  
  
Juvia had no idea that she said those words out loud until Gray answered. “I know.” He said breathless. “Me too.”  
  
His hand found her core wet and ready for him and the feeling of his fingers inside her eased the neediness a bit – he touched her clit with clumsiness but his eagerness compensated for it –, but it wasn’t what she needed; she needed him and nothing else would do.  
  
“Please, Gray-sama.” She pulled him away from kissing her chest so she could look him in the eyes. “Please.” The Ice Mage nodded and Juvia knew he couldn’t hold it any longer as well.  
  
When he finally positioned himself to,  
  
Juvia hissed, with the small burning that it was to lose her virginity. She sank her nails on his shoulders to ground herself and Gray became still after being inside of her (the blunette thanked him mentally, it was probably hard for him not to give in and just pound into her), giving her the time to get used with the new sensation. It didn’t hurt all that much and by some stories she heard, she was one of the lucky ones.  
  
“Oh, god, Juvia.” Gray whispered on her ear. “You feel so good.” He nuzzled on her neck, sucking the pulsating point there. “Hot and… oh, tight.” The Ice Mage let out a strangled noise. “I… I have to…”  
  
She dragged her nails down and shuddered when he moaned; her own burning pain between her legs lessened a bit. Moving her hips a bit, Juvia heard him make a sound she never heard before. “Yes… you can.” Gray found her lips and kissed her passionately and started to move his hips, slipping in and out of her.  
  
#  
  
In the morning Juvia straddled him and moved lazily, perfect for the soundtrack of rain still fallen outside – they were in their own world and nothing else matter beside their sighs, moans and skin against skin. Gray grabbed her hips to help her find their rhythm.  
  
“Faster, Juvia. Come on” he moaned when she moves faster. “Yes. Yes, like that… Oh, fuck.” She would have to search for marks on her hips later; Gray was too overwhelmed to think about it at the moment. He looked away from her face and his eyes roamed over her body until he found himself looking down to where their bodies met and the sight excited him even more, so he asked her, begged her to go faster. “Fu-Fuck, Juvia. Just… Please.”  
  
If anything, Juvia appeared to be more than happy with his response during love making. She loved his groans in both pleasure and frustration, she loved the way his eyes were wild and how he touched her everywhere.  
  
The woman followed her instinct and leaned forwards so her bundle of nerves could rub against him, making it all much more pleasurable for her (not that their first time hasn’t been good – but she didn’t get there), and the way she moaned only seemed to increase his want.  
  
“Gray. Gray. Gray.” It was all she could say between rapid breaths and moans. It was all she needed to say while she kept moving on top of him in such tempting way, the friction almost too much for them.  
  
Gray felt his own release coming and he tried his best to hold on, to think of less sexy and pleasurable things; he had to think about monster’s goo and Master Makarov in his bathing suit to keep himself from focusing on the way their hips met, how perfectly she surrounded his shaft and how her high pitched moans seemed to be the best things he ever heard, so he raised his upper body and slid a hand between their bodies, knowing full well that if she was going to have any pleasure off it, he would have to hold on and not just lay there.  
  
“Juvia.” Gray kissed her chest at the same he pinched her clit and she clung onto him, sobbing for him to just let her get there. The Ice Mage felt her start to contract around him and took all of his will not to give in. “Come for me, Juvia. Come on.” What else could she do but to follow his instruction?  
  
Her body arched as she let out a embarrassingly loud moan as pleasure coursed through her veins, and right after she felt Gray’s release inside her while he called her name and both fell back on the bed’s mattress.  
  
After their breaths returned to normal, Gray let out a laugh and brought the woman closer to him. “Now, that’s the best way I’ve woken up. Ever.”  
  
Juvia chuckled, still a little breathless. “Me too.”  
  
“Are you hurt?” He didn’t have the opportunity to ask her before they fell asleep in each other’s arms the night before. “From yesterday and… well, two minutes ago.”  
  
“A little sore, that’s all.” Juvia kissed his cheek before resting her head on his shoulder.  
  
“Sure?” His hands caressed her side slowly.  
  
“Yes.” She reassured him. “Juvia has been dreaming about this day for a long time.”  
  
Gray rolled his eyes, mostly for knowing it was true, so he decided to ask: “Did I live up to your dreams?”  
  
“Nope.” She smiled when she saw his indignant face. “For once reality’s much better.”  
  
#  
  
With their new found intimacy, the couple went through a very physical phase of their relationship (as most do) where they couldn’t keep their hands off each other, trying to know exactly what kind of touch made the other sigh in happiness, or moan in pleasure, and even groan in frustration.  
  
They slowed down once they figure out that there was no ticking clock – no countdown – for them to stop. The passion was still there, but at least they had conversations that didn’t include fast breathing while they took each other’s clothes.  
  
As much fun as that phase was, Juvia liked their slow love making and their talks after much better (not that their most passionate nights were amazing too, of course – sometimes slow just didn’t cut it, after all). It seemed like they were indeed a young married couple – it was just enough to make her fantasies work harder – and not just… whatever they were.  
  
So, they slowed down a little bit (which meant they weren’t doing it by the river, into the woods, on the floor. Anymore. Well, not too often anyways.).  
  
On the one year anniversary of their arrival (Juvia had been keeping count), they lay with his arms around her small frame, her head tucked on the crook of his neck, both naked after a very emotional love making.  
  
“Do…” Juvia asked in a voice not much louder than a whisper. “Do you think we would be like this if we were in our time?”  
  
“Like ‘this’?” Gray frowned.  
  
The Water Mage hesitated, unsure if he saw them in the same she did, even if she knew she meant something to him. “You know… together.”  
  
“Oh.” He thought about her question for a moment. “Yes.”  
  
She raised her head from above his chest with confusion. “Really?”  
  
“Yeah.” Gray shrugged. “Are you surprised I thought we would end up like this?” He waved his hand between them, pointing to their lack of clothing. “I knew we would end up together, Juvia. How could I not?”  
  
“What do you mean?” She frowned and pulled the covers over them with a blush on her face (Gray still didn’t mind being naked at all) and she lied down on her side and staring at him.  
  
“We were always doing things together.” Gray looked to her side to stare at her. “Sure, most of the time it was you” he gave her a pointed look in which she responded by grinning at him “but with the important stuff? Meredy and then Ultear? Lyon falling in love with you?” He rolled his eyes at the end. “You and me performing the Unison Raid? Then that… dream of me saving you from those little dragons? My… Silver?” Gray chose to just say the man’s name. “You were always there; it was almost as if there was something pulling us together. So, yeah… I knew we would end up like this. I was just delaying the inevitable.”  
  
“Why?” The woman asked.  
  
“I thought we established that I was an idiot.” Gray heard her giggle. “I can’t believe we’ve been here for a whole year. Where did time go?” Juvia hummed a sound of agreement. “What do you miss the most from our time? Fairy Tail doesn’t count.” He informed her softly.  
  
“Chocolate.” Her answer was immediate.  
  
“Chocolate?”  
  
“Oh, yes.” She sighed. “Juvia tried to find some, but when she asked about it, the woman said they didn’t sell posh fruit.” Gray laughed and she followed.  
  
“When we arrive back home I’ll buy you some chocolate, then.” He said and kissed her forehead.  
  
“Thank you.” She said, very pleased. “How about you: what do you miss?”  
  
“Missions.”  
  
“Tell me about it.” The Water Mage groaned in agreement. “It’s been so long since Juvia punched people in the face.”  
  
“Me too.” He sighed.  
  
“Oh, I know!” Juvia said excitedly. “We could train with each other.” He opened his mouth to argue, but she beat him into it. “Yes, we can’t let them know about our power, but we know that the only people to visit us are Miranda, Natalie and Mirak and they do it once a week. We could fight each other the day after they come, so there’s no way people will appear.”  
  
“I don’t know…” Gray hesitated but the rush of have a real fight after so long… he wanted just one teeny tine battle, that was all. “It would leave marks on the house…”  
  
“As if Juvia would let us fight even slightly close our house.” She rolled her eyes. “Plus, Juvia has her beautiful flowers out there. No way.” The Water Mage shook her head. “What we have, though, is a very large section of forest we can tear down if you want.” She touched his chest.  
  
“That we do.” He agreed after a moment. “We’ll talk about this later.”  
  
“Oh, what is this?” Juvia straddled him and Gray took a sharp breath with her closeness even if she didn’t touch their groins. “Are you afraid of losing, Gray-sama?”  
  
“Don’t provoke me, Juvia.” He said dangerously and felt her hips lowering into his, eyes turning wild. “You know I will win.” His voice came out strangled. “I won against you before.”  
  
“But you don’t even seem to want to fight.” She whispered before nibbling his ear. “Do you forfeit?”  
  
He changes positions with her so fast the blunette only had time to gasp before feeling her back hit the mattress and then his weight between her legs. “I never forfeit.”  
  
“Is that a yes on – oh, oh – on the fight ?” Juvia asked with a moan when he moved his hips just in the way he knew she loved.  
  
“Yes.” Gray did the movement again just to earn another moan from her. “But that’s for tomorrow – tonight I’ll teach you not to provoke me.”  
  
#  
  
Thankfully to their little sessions of battles, Gray was feeling much better and the reminder of the adrenalin he felt during a fight reminded him of home and calmed him down (alongside with the sex, the sex worked wonders as well) and they spent months living in harmony – with a couple of domestic fights a few times because of Juvia’s jealousy (“Who would walk shirtless around a town during the x-hundreds? The women looked! Some drooled and gave me the thumbs up.”), sometimes because of Gray’s he-didn’t-call-it-jealousy (“Really, Juvia? Flirting? We would live without the extra cheese; you didn’t have to… oh, stop giggling. Shut up.”) and a couple of times because of a few chores, but they always worked it out.  
  
Most mornings Juvia would wake up first and get up to start her day by fixing them something to eat and then going outside to take care of the chickens she acquired – Gray would wake up later those days, since his chores around the house were more heavy lifting than hers. During a few lazy mornings – when it was raining or colder –, the couple would stay tangled in each other arms not a bit interested in getting up until noon. Some other (rare) times, Gray would be the first to wake up, but he rarely got up; preferring to enjoy the warm naked body cuddling against him.  
  
They fell into a routine and neither was too bothered by it.  
  
That morning, though, almost two years after they were taken to the past, something was different.  
  
Gray woke her up, after dressing himself, with a kiss on the cheek and caressing her hair. She moaned in displeasure for being interrupted – which the Ice Mage would find adorable if he wasn’t so concerned. “It’s been two weeks, Juvia. I think you should see the village’s doctor.” He informed her, kindly.  
  
“Juvia is fine.” She yawned and sat on the bed. “Just a little tired.”  
  
“You have been doing the same things as always and you always woke up before me and I caught you napping a lot… This is not normal for you.” The Ice Mage watched the blunette wrap the sheet loosely around her naked form before getting up. “Please, Juvia. Let’s not take any chances.”  
  
The woman stared at him and after a moment’s hesitation, she agreed. They were in this together and it made sense that Gray was afraid something happened to her: she was his only link to their time and losing it would drive him mad in no time.  
  
“We need to go get supplies, anyway.” She told him before search for her clothes. Juvia wasn’t entirely sure she needed to see a doctor – she just had been napping too much, but when she put her clothes on and noted they were a little bit too loose on her, the Water Mage decided that maybe Gray’s concern wasn’t too unfunded.  
  
When the doctor, Marsha, heard of the Water Mage’s symptoms from Gray (he insisted on being there while the examination) and after asking a few embarrassing (for him) questions to Juvia about her monthly cycles, the diagnose was pretty obvious to the older woman.  
  
“Oh, you’ll be getting a new family member in no time, it seems. And with you two as parents, it will be a looker, that’s for sure.” Marsha chuckled. “About time too. It’s been what? Two years since you got married, right?”  
  
“But…” Gray’s mouth was gaping like a fish while his ‘wife’ stared at the woman, confused. “I thought she was supposed to be getting sick, right? Or at least shouldn’t she be gaining weight, then?”  
  
“Men.” She scoffed. “Every new mother’s body reacts in a way, boy.” The old woman rolled her eyes. “Your wife is tired because it takes a lot of energy to keep the little one warm and protected. Her body is getting used to it, but in no time she’ll be getting big and beautiful.”  
  
“How sure are you?” The Ice Mage asked after a moment.  
  
“I have delivered a hundred babies, boy.” The doctor stared at him with disdain.  
  
“So… pretty sure?”  
  
“Yes.” Marsha frowned at their reactions, Gray walking in circles while Juvia stared at the ground with wide eyes and in shock. “Are you disappointed?” The old woman asked, gently. “I thought youngsters like you would like to have loads of children.”  
  
“It’s not that…” Gray stopped his pacing. “We thought we would have more” he tried to get a suitable thing to say “alone time before having a baby.”  
  
“Juvia…” The blunette managed to whisper. “Juvia has been taking the tea.” She started taking s tea Marsha gave to her to prevent pregnancy and she had been taking the right way, she was sure.  
  
“Oh, my darling.” Laughing lightly, Marsha grabbed one of the younger woman’s hands. “Only not being intimate with someone is guarantee that you won’t be with child.” Juvia nodded lightly before the doctor continued to talk. “You can do some of your chores, but you also need to rest and let your husband here do the heavy lifting for a while.” Marsha stared at Gray, who nodded in understanding even during his shocked mind. “And you need to start to eat more so you and the little one can be healthy.”  
  
“Thank you, doctor.” Gray touched Juvia’s shoulder gently and the woman got up, thanking Marsha – who asked them to return if Juvia felt anything out of the ordinary and for a checkup in a couple of weeks.  
  
During their journey back home, the couple was silent; the only sounds were from the horse and the carriage and as soon as they arrived, Juvia ran inside their house while Gray took care of things – truthfully he took a little longer than necessary, to both give her time and to thing about their predicament on his own.  
  
They were already in trouble – they were back six hundred years back in time, for god sakes! – and now to add into their list of things to deal with (alongside with their friendship, love life and sex life), they had a baby on the way.  
  
Dragons were his first concern, of course. Then there was the fact that their child would most likely be a mage and magic was not nicely seen by others. Plus, there were diseases people haven’t found the cure to yet, the not so good medical care and all the stuff that could happen to either Juvia or the baby during her pregnancy.  
  
He put the horse on its modest stable and caressed the brown fur.  
  
If it was a boy, Gray was sure that it would like him but with Juvia’s hair color – dark hair ran into his family, and it was time for a change, anyway, it was almost like a curse. If it was a girl, though, he knew she would look like Juvia. He just knew, and the thought made him smile.  
  
The idea of a blue haired toddler giggling while Gray and Juvia watched him (or her) running between the grass and around their house made the Ice Mage smile. Even with all the trouble they might encounter along the way, a child with Juvia would be more like a blessing than anything else.  
  
When he entered their home, though, it was clear that his companion had some real trouble with the news; she was curled on their bed, sobbing.  
  
“Juvia?” Gray was surprised to see her that way; he thought she would be delighted to have his child.  
  
“I’m sorry.” He heard in between her sobbing. “I’m so sorry, Gray-sama.” The man lost no time in wrap his arms around her in a hug while she kept asking for his forgiveness.  
  
“There’s nothing to be sorry about.” Gray petted her hair.  
  
“Juvia swears she took the tea the right way.” The Water Mage told him while her face was buried on his chest. “This is not… this is not some ruse to… to keep…”  
  
Oh, Gray understood then. The stupid woman thought he would think it was some kind of plot to keep him by her side (it had been known that some women would do it to get married). Sighing, he waited for her to calm down after sobbing for a couple of minutes.  
  
“This is good news, Juvia.” The Ice Mage told her. “A child is always good news.”  
  
“But… but…” She looked up to him with confused eyes. “But…”  
  
“Are you happy?” Gray asked and she nodded without hesitation. “I am happy too. You told me that we needed to have a life here and not just wait to return home to keep going.” He hesitated for a moment before putting a hand over her stomach. “This is us moving forward, that’s all.”  
  
“You really don’t think that…” She left the rest of the sentence in the air.  
  
“No. I know you and as crazy as you got in the past, you have no need of acting that way again.” He chuckled. “To be honest, now that I think about it, the way we have been together for the past year and a half, I’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner. I mean… we spent a long time… training baby making.”  
  
The Water Mage chuckled. “So… are you okay with this?” Juvia dried her tears.  
  
“I will freak out later when I have time to realize I have no idea of how to even carry a baby, but right now I am okay with it.” The Ice Mage kissed her forehead  
  
#  
  
“What are you doing?” Gray asked from the bed while watching Juvia knit something with blue wool, she cut her hair to a shoulder’s length once again after letting it grow during their time there, her arms resting on her bulging stomach. Marsha estimated she was about six months along during the last time they saw the doctor a week before.  
  
“Juvia is trying to knit socks.” She informed him without taking her eyes from the task in hand. “The women of the Village are knitting some baby clothes too as gifts for the baby, but Juvia wants to do at least one thing and she can sew, but knitting it more complicated than that.”  
  
“Why blue?” He wondered. “We could be having a girl.”  
  
“The women said that Juvia’s stomach is low, which means is a boy.” The Water Mage sighed. “But then there was another woman who said that Juvia’s belly was too round instead of pointy, so it is a girl.” She rolled her eyes. “At the end we will have to wait either way. Plus, what’s wrong with girls wearing blue?” She narrowed her brown eyes in his direction and by then Gray was used to pregnancy hormones. “Juvia likes blue very much.”  
  
“No, nothing wrong.” He shrugged. “If it is a girl, she’ll look very pretty with her blue socks.”  
  
“What if it is a boy?”  
  
“He’ll look very manly.” Gray grinned and Juvia chuckled. “Boys and their socks, that’s what I say.”  
  
Juvia threw a second ball of wool in his direction; he grabbed it and saw as she rubbed her stomach before return to her knitting. Gray couldn’t help but wonder what Ur would say if she saw him in the year x158 with a ‘wife’ and a baby on the way. She probably would pamper Juvia as much as she was able and then give Gray an earful about his responsibilities that came with a new life.  
  
He could almost hear his old teacher’s voice telling him that having a child was something that would change him forever, like it did to her.  
  
Being brought back in time, finally have the guts to kiss Juvia, pursue a relationship, see Juvia’s stomach grow as time passed, feel their baby move when he touched her belly and talk to her about names… He was already changed.  
  
“What do you think they will say when we arrive back to our time, older and with a baby?” Gray asked and Juvia chuckled.  
  
“Juvia thinks they will be in a little bit of a shock at first, but since this won’t be the first time most of us saw this – a couple have a child in little time, like it happened with Viska and Alzack, they will probably just shrug it off and be happy.”  
  
Gray thought about it and agreed. “Yeah, I think that it will be pretty much it.”  
  
“Oh, I believe there’s a poll going on too.” Juvia smiled and the Ice Mage frowned. “About how long some couples would take to ‘hook up’? I don’t know how they will settle that.”  
  
“Why?”  
  
“For us, it was three months after we arrived, for them, it will be two weeks.” She shrugged.  
  
“I am not getting involved in that mess.” The man snorted.  
  
“Juvia would like to give birth in our own time, though.” The blunette sighed.  
  
“I know. I would like that too.”  
  
#  
  
Gray hated childbirth.  
  
Hated. It.  
  
He really hated to hear Juvia’s groans of pain while he stayed with the men, feasting at the bar. They tried to ease him, but the Ice Mage couldn’t stop but to walk around in circles.  
  
“We all get a little worried with our first, boy.” Mirak slapped Gray’s back. “But don’t worry; women have all the right equipment to deal with it.” As if on cue, Juvia let out a loud groan from the upside room, where earlier that day he brought her to see Marsha. “See? Everything is like it’s supposed to be.”  
  
“How is that normal?” Gray asked, accepting and drinking a large amount of beer. “I’ve seen her handling… stuff, nasty stuff and she didn’t give a peep! Now she’s screaming in pain.”  
  
“Be glad it’s not men who give birth.” Mirak shuddered. “In some things, women are better suited for the job.”  
  
“I hate this. What if something goes wrong?” The Ice Mage asked the older man, who shook his head.  
  
“Nothing will go wrong, your wife is strong and so will be your child. Now, let’s drink and celebrate.” Mirak yelled to the other men at the bar. “Let’s drink!” which was followed by screams of agreement while Gray groaned in frustration. It would be a long day.  
  
Four hours later most men were literally under the bar’s table after partying, but Gray didn’t drink all that much, of course. He tried to get inside the room, but Marsha blocked him. (“Men are hopeless with childbirth, young man. They only get in the way.”)  
  
After hours of hearing Juvia groan and yell in pain upstairs, there was a very loud groan, followed by silence. Gray could feel it was a different kind of silence, so his heart beat faster, waiting for the sound he instinctively knew it was coming.  
  
The cry. A loud and beautiful cry of a newborn.  
  
His newborn.  
  
Gray felt Mirak’s slaps of congratulation on his back, but all he wanted was to go upstairs and meet the child he made with Juvia. He didn’t even know if he had a son or a daughter, which didn’t matter, of course – he would love either way.  
  
So, he walked up the stairs and waited about ten minutes before the door was opened (Marsha told him a few weeks ago that after the baby, there was the afterbirth to be delivered and it would take him a few minutes to be allowed inside). When the older woman opened the door, she smiled at him.  
  
“Your Juvia was a very strong girl today.” She opened the door further to allow him in. “They are both fine.”  
  
“Thank you, Marsha.” Gray entered the room and located the Water Mage resting on the bed – she looked like a mess: hair undone, sweaty and with bags under her eyes, but he never saw her more beautiful in his mind. She noticed, of course, that she was holding a bundle covered with white blankets. “Hi.” His voice was hoarse.  
  
“Hi.” Her smile was big and bright.  
  
Gray approached the bed slowly, unsure of what to do. “I wanted to stay with you, but they didn’t let me in…”  
  
“I know.” Juvia said kindly. “Now… would you like to hold our son?”  
  
His breath got caught in his throat and he gasped. Of course he knew there were only two possibilities: boy or girl, but finally knowing, finally having his son born and within his reach…  
  
“I…” He cleared his throat and blinked fast to prevent tears from falling. “I would love to hold our son, yes.”  
  
#  
  
She stared at their son running after a butterfly, his tiny legs trying its best to catch up and do what his brain wanted him to. Urian was ten months old and just learned how to walk, so his parents needed to keep an extra eye on him. “What if we can’t take him?”  
  
Gray stared down at the blunette in his arms. “What?”  
  
“What if Nhoj says we can’t take him with us?” Juvia didn’t take her eyes off Urian.  
  
“Why would he do that?” The Ice Mage frowned, wondering what was in Juvia’s mind.  
  
“To us, this is the past.” Juvia finally looks up at Gray with concerned eyes. “To him, this is his time. He was conceived and born here. What if he can’t go to the future? What will we do then?” Her voice trembled with fear and the only thing Gray could do to ease her heart, was hug her tight.  
  
“This is not going to happen.” He whispered.  
  
“But…”  
  
“Not. Going. To. Happen.” Gray said with certainty this time and Juvia nodded in agreement. The man thought for a moment and decided that they didn’t know much about Nhoj and his methods: as far as he knew, Juvia’s theory could be right. He looked the way Urian was giggling, his blue soft curls bouncing as he ran around – his chest tightened with the thought of losing his son. That was never going to happen. Gray would miss Fairy Tail forever, of course, but the pain of leaving Urian behind? That would never be an option. He knew what to do if there were no options left. “But if it does, we’ll stay.”  
  
“Stay?” The blunette looked up to him.  
  
“Of course.” Gray tightened his grip on her. “Our friends would understand that we had to stay with our son instead of going back, Juvia. They would be glad we have a child and I am sure they would want us with him.”  
  
“So, if it comes to it, we’ll stay.” The Water Mage asked.  
  
“We’ll stay with Urian, Juvia. No matter what.”  
  
#  
  
Gray was visiting the village to get the supplies for the week after trading for a deer he caught the day before when he saw a tall blonde man in a weird suit talking to Alice, the woman who handled the fruits. The Ice Mage frowned, trying to figure it out from where he knew that face, when it hit him.  
  
“Nhoj?” Gray whispered to himself before jogging to meet the man. “Nhoj?”  
  
The Time Mage turned around and stared at Gray with a big smile. “Hello there.”  
  
The Ice Mage’s heart was beating fast with anticipation. “I can’t believe you’re here! It means that we can go home!”  
  
“I’m sorry?” The blonde was confused.  
  
“Oh, right. You haven’t met us yet. Listen, about five years ago, you brought me and my… well, she’s pretty much my wife now, I guess; you pulled us from a fight when we were about to die back in the year x792 and brought us here… something about a fixed point in time?” Gray explained quickly.  
  
Nhoj nodded. “That sounds like me, yeah.”  
  
“You told us that we needed to be here and that we needed to return exactly two weeks after we left.” Gray informed.  
  
“I love it when I am mysterious.” The Time Mage laughed. “And to think that I just came here because I have a sudden urge to eat apples; my life is so exciting.”  
  
“Will you take us home?” Gray asked, hopeful. “Will you take us to our own time?”  
  
“Sure.” Nhoj nodded. “Just let me find an apple, okay? I have been craving one juicy red bastard.”  
  
“By the way… we have a child.” The Ice Mage feared the other mage’s reaction.  
  
“Oh, that’s marvelous. I love children. Probably have a few of my own running around in between five hundred years ago and a few hundred years ahead. Time travelling stuff, don’t worry about it.” The blonde finally found apples and bought one.  
  
“Juvia…”  
  
“That’s your wife, right?” Nhoj interrupted before taking a bite of his red apple.  
  
“Yes. Juvia and I were concerned that we wouldn’t be able to take him with us.” Gray decided to tell him straight.  
  
“Why is that?” Nhoj put a hand over his chest, utterly surprised and terrified of the thought.  
  
“She said that this is his time, he was born here and all that, maybe you could only take people back, not forwards.” The Ice Mage shared his worries.  
  
“I’m looking forward to meeting your wife, Gray. She seems to be after my heart: this theory is very nice. Incorrect, but nice.” Nhoj chuckled.  
  
“We’re married: hands off.” Not entirely true: they have been living together for five years, they had a child together and couldn’t spend more than a few days apart from each other without feeling bad. They didn’t have papers, but the essence of marriage was there. “Wait, ‘incorrect’? Does this mean we can take him?”  
  
“Of course you can! As if I would just be such an ass and separate a child from his parents.” He scoffed. “The little one can come, sure.”  
  
Gray dragged the Time Mage around the town so he could inform Mirak about his family’s derpature of the village. He explained the best he could about his situation (“I’m sorry, Mirak. But Juvia and I… it’s time we need to return home. I can never thank you enough for everything you did for us. I know Miranda’s getting married in a couple of months… The cottage will be a nice place for her to begin her life… Again, Mirak… Thank you.”)  
  
During the walk to the cottage, Nhoj told Gray about some weird travels he made, but all the Ice Mage could think was how he and his family could return back to their time, to be with their friends again.  
  
When they saw the cottage, Gray ran towards the house, but when he found it empty he immediately thought of the river, where Juvia would entertain their son, who seemed to like water much better than ice (he would have to live with the fact that his first born was most likely to be a Water Mage and his mind would shush the part of him telling that they would have more children for him to train as Ice Mages).  
  
“Juvia?” Gray yelled when he was by the shore and quickly located his son playing with the water on his ankles. The Ice Mage caught the boy and raised him up above his head, in which the blue haired boy laughed.  
  
“Gray-sama, Juvia is looking where he is going, don’t worry.” Juvia said with a roll of her eyes – honestly, she was taking care of him, he didn’t need to worry.  
  
“No, you don’t understand…” Gray smile and was about to talk about whom he found in the village, but said man beat him to it by appearing.  
  
“Hello.” The blonde waved.  
  
“Nhoj?” Juvia gasped. “Oh my god… Does this mean that…?”  
  
“We are going home.” Gray grabbed her hand. “And I talked with him, Urian can come with us.” Juvia threw her arms around him and the Ice Mage put their son down so he could hug her better.  
  
“Oh…” Nhoj kneeled in front of Urian and smiled. “I see now. Hello, there.” The blonde man touched the boy’s cheek with affection.  
  
“What do you see?” Juvia frowned to Gray and then stared down to the Time Mage.  
  
“I see why I brought you here. Because of him.” Nhoj used some kind of magic and a few sparks came out of his hand, which made the boy laugh and clap. “I explained that I am a Time Mage, right? That I can see the fluidity of time? The thing is: there are some points and people in time and space that are always there – they are fixed, never changing. Little Urian here is one of those people. It’s fixed: you two always come here and you two always have him.”  
  
Juvia picked her son up – instinctively trying to protect him – and kissed his cheek. “Why is he… fixed?”  
  
“I think that this little lad here will be part of one a big event in the future; something also fixed.” Nhoj got up from the ground. “In your friends’ chronological timeline, he has to be born and one year in a half after two weeks after you disappear, but I guess that you are not together two weeks before that; not even close to baby making, right?” The couple nodded. “There we go.”  
  
“That’s why Gray-sama and Juvia need to be here…” Juvia nodded in understanding “so he’s conceived, born and of age in two weeks, as unlikely as it seems.”  
  
Nhoj stepped closer to the woman and winked. “Are you sure I can’t tempt you on a date?”  
  
“Sorry.” The Water Mage giggled while Gray rolled his eyes.  
  
“So, this is all so we can have him?” The Ice Mage went to stand by Juvia’s side. “Why didn’t we do that in our own chronological time line?”  
  
“This is your chronological time line. You are still twenty four; it doesn’t matter when you are. Plus… fixed point in time and space, remember? It doesn’t matter which universe you are, this will always happen.” The blonde man shrugged.  
  
“Complicated.” Gray massaged his left temple.  
  
“Timey wimey stuff.” The Time Mage waved a hand in dismissal. “It doesn’t matter. You changed from friends to a happy couple, got busy a few times to make our little Urian here, who will be very important in some time. Job complete! I’m such a cupid.” Nhoj put his arms around Gray and Juvia, squishing poor Urian. “I am amazing.”  
  
“Ready to go home?” Juvia asked Gray once Nhoj released them.  
  
“Yes.” The Ice Mage agreed.  
  
#  
  
Nhoj let them pack a few things to bring with them (Urian’s first clothing, Urian’s favorite toys, Urian’s blanket, Urian’s pillow – so, it was mostly the boy’s bag), and in a blink of an eye the blonde man transported them back to x793.  
  
They were back to their time and surrounded by their friends. Apparently, Nhoj brought them directly inside the building of Fairy Tail.  
  
Mirajane squealed with the sudden appearance of their missing friends. “Gray? Juvia?”  
  
The couple was still trying to situate themselves, Gray had wrapped his arms around the Water Mage and their son and slowly. “Hey, guys.”  
  
“It was true, then? When we arrived after the fight there was a note, saying that you would be here in two weeks. You look… older, though.” Makarov’s eyes traveled to the small boy in Juvia’s arms. “And… who’s this?”  
  
“We will explain everything, but for now…” Gray smiled and picked the boy from Juvia’s arms. “This is our son, Urian.” There were gasps from their friends. The boy looked up with his dark eyes much like Gray’s to stare at his father when he heard his name. The Ice Mage smile became softer when looking to the boy. “Uri, this is the rest of your family.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And this is what happens when a fanfiction writer is in love with Fairy Tail and Doctor Who at the same time and in insane levels.  
> And Nhoj’s is “John” backwards. The Doctor uses John Smith as his name when he has to and… Yeah. Still blaming the Whothon. Don’t judge me – I don’t reign over my fangirl side; it reigns over me.


	3. Part III

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a part that wasn’t supposed to exist, yet here we are. LOL

 

“I still can’t believe you’ve been away for five years and you’ve had a baby.” Lucy said, staring at the couple sitting across the table.

“He’s growing up so fast.” Juvia looked over her shoulder and saw that Urian was playing with Asuka, Happy and Mirajane. “It feels like Juvia held him for the first time yesterday.”

“If the kid didn’t have both of your smells on him, I would’ve been pretty doubtful myself.” Natsu was staring at the couple. “How old are you now?”

“Twenty-five.” Gray answered and then pointed at Juvia. “Twenty-four.”

“Sorry if we seem baffled,” Erza explained, “but two weeks ago Gray was still walking towards accepting his feelings and here you are, five years later and with a son. This is Alzack and Viska all over again.”

“That’s what we thought.” The Ice Mage smiled, grabbed Juvia’s hand underneath the table and she squeezed it. “When we were waiting for Urian to be born, we compared the situations.”

“We’ll get used to it.” Erza smiled.

“Forget the kid, look at them!” Cana exclaimed. “They are disgustingly in love.”

“I did _not_ miss that.” Gray groaned in annoyance and Juvia giggled. “Is it too late for Nhoj to bring us back?”

“Yes.” The blunette said. “Cana-san, Juvia knows this is a lot to take in…”

“Nah, not a lot. I am just glad you two finally got together.” Cana laughed. “About time.” Gray rolled his eyes and Juvia’s cheeks warmed up. “So, how was the past?”

“Very simple.” Gray answered with a shrug. “We were afraid of the dragons, but none came close, thankfully. We had to hide we were mages, but it wasn’t too bad.”

“Did you miss it here?” Natsu asked.

“Every single day.” The Ice Mage said without hesitation and Juvia looked at him strangely. “But we knew we would come back. We just… didn’t stop living while we were there.” Gray glanced at Juvia for a moment. “Uri was a surprise we hadn’t planned, but we are glad it did.”

“He’s a good looking kid.” Cana’s eyes shifted behind the couple where their child was still playing. “He has Juvia’s hair and her fair skin, but besides that, he’s a mini-Gray.”

“He is.” Gray said, proud swelling inside his chest for his boy.

“Oh, Juvia, you should find Gajeel. He didn’t like that note at all.” Lucy smiled. “He was sure you would’ve told him if you were leaving.”

“Juvia misses her friend.” The blunette admitted.

“He will come in soon.” Erza assured Juvia, who nodded. “Now, tell us about the past.”

**#**

Juvia went to check on Urian and when she saw that he was having fun and appeared to not want to nap at all, she stood at the middle of the Guild, taking it all in. It seemed such a long time ever since she stood there.

“Are you okay?” The blunette heard and turned around, seeing Lisanna behind her. “You seem to be thinking too hard.”

“Just wondering that it’s been five years ever since Juvia was here last.” The blunette answered with a smile.

“Yeah, and to us it’s been just two weeks and you’re returned with a baby.” Lisanna chuckled. “That’s a lot to take in.” Juvia chuckled. “He’s really cute, you know?”

“Of course he is, he looks just like Gray-sama.” Lisanna couldn’t help but to laugh and Juvia joined.

“It’s nice to have you back.”

“It’s nice to be back.” The blunette looked over her shoulder to where Gray was currently talking excitedly with his team and Juvia suddenly had mixed feelings: she was happy to be back with their friends, but she was also terrified that they returned to their time. As far as she knew Gray could find someone else now that he didn’t have to hide his magic. It had been years since the last time she felt that way, insecure about their relationship. The sudden trip to their time sure didn’t leave her time to think everything over. Something must’ve appeared on her face because Lisanna put a hand over her shoulder.

“What’s wrong?”

Juvia hesitated to answer. “Everything’s gonna change now. It’s been only the three of us for the past two years and just Gray-sama and Juvia before that. What if-” She stopped and Lisanna frowned.

“What if what?”

The Water Mage shook her head. “Nothing. It’s nothing. Juvia will talk to Gray-sama about it later, don’t worry.”

“Are you sure?” The white haired girl asked.

“Yes.” Juvia smiled and pointed to the table. “She’ll return now. It’s nice to see you Lisanna-san.”

**#**

About forty minutes later, Natsu sniffed the air and told Juvia that Gajeel was close to the Guild and would most likely enter it in a few moments, so the blunette excused herself from the table.

“Juvia will be explaining things to Gajeel-kun, Gray-sama.” She said. “Could you watch Urian for a bit?”

“Of course.” Gray nodded and Juvia leaned to give him a peck on the lips, like they’ve grown used to the past years and the Ice Mage smiled before she left.

Cana, then, whispered to Natsu: “It’s _so weird_ to see Gray so caring like that.”

“Yep.” Natsu nodded.

“Oh, shut up.” Gray snarled and Lucy giggled while Erza just smiled knowingly.

**#**

“Gajeel-kun!” Juvia exclaimed when she saw her friend walk past the door and he looked surprised to see her there for a second before she wrapped her arms around him. “Juvia missed you!”

A heartbeat later, he finally caught up with the situation and pushed her away a little. “Where the fuck were you?” He stared at her and then frowned. “You look different. What are you wearing?” He thought it was strange her wearing the rustic dress and sniffed the air. “You smell different too. What the hell…?”

“Do you remember what happened when we stayed in Tenroujima?”

He rolled his eyes “Pretty hard to forget.”

“It happened again, but only with Gray-sama and Juvia.” The blunette explained. “Juvia looks different because it’s been five years to us. We were taken to the past.” Gajeel’s eyes widened. “As for Juvia’s smell…” She smiled softly, grabbed her friend’s hand and led him further inside the Guild.

“Juvia, where the hell-” He stopped talking as soon as he saw a small child with blue hair, the same shade as his friend and watched as she picked the kid up – who was babbling excitedly.

“You can tell everything later, sweetheart.” Juvia said softly to the boy and he smiled. She looked at her friend, who was staring at the boy in disbelief. “Gajeel-kun, this is Juvia’s son, Urian.”

“Your… _What_?” The Dragon Slayer was trying to wrap his mind around it, but with just one look at the child, he could see his heritage: he had Juvia’s hair, but aside that, the boy looked just like Gray.

“My son.” Juvia repeated and then shifted her attention back to the child. “Uri-chan, this is your Uncle Gajeel.” Urian frowned in confusion before looking at the man in front of them. Gajeel blinked, but did nothing otherwise. “Gajeel-kun, say something.”

“Hey.” The Dragon Slayer said and tilted his head to the right and the boy – _Urian_ – did the same. They stared at each other, as if assessing the unknown person in front of them. Gajeel leaned in a little and sniffed the boy, who just reached for Gajeel’s nose, touching the piercings. The Dragon Slayer was about to yell at Urian, but stopped when he saw the boy was touching his pierced eyebrows and giggling to himself.

“Urian, don’t.” Juvia reached for her son’s tiny hands, but Gajeel raised his own hand and she stopped, confused.

The boy kept his inspection of Gajeel and apparently thought the piercings were hilarious because he couldn’t stop touching them. After a couple of minutes, Urian let go.

“Had enough?” Gajeel asked, an eyebrow raised.

“No.” Urian grinned and raised his arms, as if waiting for Gajeel to pick him up, but the Dragon Slayer took a step back.

“That’s _not_ happening, kid.”

Juvia looked surprise. “He’s usually so shy around adults. I’ve never seen him asking someone other than me and Gray-sama to pick him up. He must’ve _really_ liked you.” The Water Mage put her son on the floor once more. “Go find your father, honey.” Urian smiled and ran away, but stopped a few steps later and turned around.

“Bye bye!” He waved to Gajeel and waited until the Dragon Slayer waved back at him before running once again in search for his father.

“Holy shit.” Gajeel breathed as soon as the boy was no longer in earshot. “You have a kid!”

“I do.” Juvia said slowly.

“He smells like you and the stripper.” He said, trying to wrap his mind around the fact that his friend was now a mother. “You’ve had a kid with _Fullbuster_.”

“Yes.”

“And how old are you now?”

Juvia grinned. “Older than _you_.”

Gajeel put a hand on his temples. “Dear god, can’t we have a month without something crazy happening?”

“No such luck, Juvia’s afraid.” The blunette touched his forearm. “I know this seems sudden, Gajeel-kun, but it has been five years since we last saw each other. Juvia’s life is a little different now.”

“A _little_ different? A _kid_ , Juvia.”

“You’ll get used to it.” The blunette said. “And it seems as if you liked him as well. It’s not everyone who get to touch your piercings.” Juvia teased her friend and he rolled his eyes.

“I was seeing if he was going to be afraid of me.” He stopped for a moment. “He is not.”

“Juvia has a brave little boy.” She twined her arm with Gajeel’s. “I missed you.” His answer was to snarl and Juvia grinned, knowing it was all she would have as an answer. “Come on, you have to put Juvia up to speed of what has happened during the past two weeks.”

“You’re the one who spent five years away and had a kid. I think this conversation has to go the other way round.” The Dragon Slayer snorted and Juvia laughed out loud and led him to a nearby table.

**#**

Gray picked up his crying son and tried to calm him down, but Urian didn’t seem to want to so Gray excused himself from where he had been with his friends and searched for Juvia, finding her talking with Gajeel and laughing at something he said.

“Juvia.” Gray called as soon as he was close enough and the blunette looked over her shoulder, seeing her son softly crying. “He’s not calming down.”

The woman was fast to get up from the chair and pick up the boy, who immediately started to make an ever bigger fuss to get his mother’s attention. “What is it, sweetheart?” Urian cried harder and Juvia sighed before talking to Gray. “He didn’t nap this afternoon, he’s crying because he is tired. We need to see where we’ll stay tonight; Fairy Hills doesn’t allow men inside, so Urian can’t get in.”

Gray frowned but then his face lit up. “I still have my apartment! It’s only been two weeks since we left and I paid the rent a few days before we went to the past.”

Urian cried harder and Juvia patted is back as the boy hid his face on the crook of his mother’s neck and whimpered. “I know, baby, you are tired.” Juvia shushed the boy before look up to Gray. “Is there enough space?”

“Yeah. I’ve got a double bed.” Gray nodded. “Urian can sleep with us until we find a more permanent arrangement.”

“Okay, then.”  Juvia nodded and turned to Gajeel, who had been silent during the conversation. “Sorry, Gajeel-kun. Maybe we could talk tomorrow. Urian is very tired after all the excitement of returning to this time.”

“No problem.” Gajeel shrugged and Urian stopped hiding his face to look at the Dragon Slayer. His dark eyes were still shining with unshed tears. “Now you go and behave for your… _mom_ , kid.”

Urian hid his face once more, but stopped whimpering and Juvia sighed. “I am going to say good-bye to the others and we can go, Gray-sama.”

“Do you want me to take him?” The Ice Mage asked, but she shook her head ‘no’.

“He calmed down now, better not to move him much.” She said and then said her good-bye to her friend and Gray stayed behind and saw when his son looked over his mother’s shoulder and waved at Gajeel, to which the Dragon Slayer waved back.

Gray laughed. “You are already whipped, aren’t you?”

“ _No_.” Gajeel sounded offended.

“Sure.” Gray snorted and then stared at the other man. “Nice seeing you again, Gajeel.”

“Yeah.” Gajeel nodded and watched Gray follow the same direction Juvia went, but the Dragon Slayer called him. “Hey. You better take care of her. Of them.”

Gray stopped for a moment. “Don’t worry, I will.”

**#**

“Here it is.” Gray said, producing a replica of the key to his apartment while Juvia had Urian in her arms behind him. “I don’t even know how I left it five years ago.”

“It can’t be worse than how we got our house.”  Juvia chuckled and Urian whined. “Sorry, baby, mama is going to put you to bed after you take a bath.”

“Bath!” Urian visibly perked up and Gray rolled his eyes – his son sure had a tendency to become a Water Mage in the future.

“Yes, honey, a bath!” Juvia smiled and kissed her son’s cheek.

Gray opened the door, turned on the lights and what he saw made him cringe. His apartment was such a mess: his clothes and underwear scattered everywhere, a little too many dirty plates that smelled real bad. Gray hoped the bedroom was in better state than the small living room/kitchen.

Gray put the bag they brought from the past on the floor and turned around, finding Juvia looking around uncomfortably. “You’ve lived with me for five years, you know how bad I am with housekeeping.” When Juvia didn’t look up, Gray worried. “What is wrong?”

“We are _really_ back.”

“Yeah, we are. We’ve spent the afternoon at the Guild.” Gray said, slowly and picked up Urian from her arms and she reluctantly let him.

“How… how do you feel about that?” She asked him with apprehension.

“What?” Gray frowned while arranging their son in his arms. “What do you mean? I feel good about returning to our time.”

“Yes, but-” Juvia hesitated “how do you feel about Juvia and Urian staying here with you?”

“Where else would we go?” The Ice Mage was very confused. “Look, Juvia… I know the apartment is not exactly the best but it is temporary. We’ll find somewhere else soon to-”

“That’s not what Juvia means, the apartment is fine.” She bit her lower lip. “What I am trying to say is that Urian and Juvia could… stay somewhere else if you want some space.”

Gray held his son tighter when her words sank in. “You want to take Urian away?”

“No! _No_. It’s just… When we were _there_ , things were different and we only had each other. And I know you love Urian, but things will be different here.”

“Different how?” He didn’t like where the conversation was headed.

“It just will.” Juvia said, almost snapping at him. “Our friends are here, our family. There are other options other than… Juvia.”

“Other op-” Gray was getting angrier and Urian seemed to have picked that up, because he was getting fussier. “What are you even saying?”

“Gray-sama…” Juvia tried, but he just gave her their son. Gray, then, walked towards the bedroom and returned a few moments later with his wallet and headed to the front door. “Gray-sama, where are you going?”

“We don’t have anything to eat. I’m going to the market. I trust you are not taking my son away in the next fifteen minutes, right?” He told her with a snarl before leaving the apartment, slamming the door behind him.

**#**

Half an hour later, Gray entered the apartment again, holding a few bags with food. He noticed the door of the bedroom opened and heard Juvia singing a lullaby. He had cooled off a bit, but Juvia’s words still pissed him off. What the hell was she even thinking talking about his options?

Gray gathered the dirty plates and put them on the sink. He had started to take the groceries from the bags when Juvia stepped in the living room, closing the door from the bedroom behind her and Gray kept himself occupied.

“I’m sorry.” Juvia’s words were just above a whisper and it was the guilt in her tone that made him stop what he was doing to stare at her.

“You suggested we stayed apart.” Gray spit out the words. “You suggested taking Urian away from me.”

The blunette stepped closer to him. “That’s not what Juvia meant.”

Gray narrowed his eyes. “It sure sounded like it was. Five years, Juvia! _Five years_ we’ve been together. We have a son, for god’s sake.”

“I know, I know.” Juvia grabbed his hand. “And I’m sorry for even suggesting it, but this is something that have been haunting me ever since we got together: what if you didn’t want me when we returned? What if what we had only lasted back in the past?”

“Juvia…” Gray said in disbelief. “Remember when you asked me if we would still get together if we were at this time and I said yes? I was telling the truth!”

“I’m sorry, okay? But that’s what Juvia thought it would happen when we came back! I know you love Urian, Juvia can see it; but I’m afraid you’ll realize you don’t want _me_. ”

“This is so much bullshit I don’t even know where to begin.” The Ice Mage couldn’t believe his ears. He took a calming breath. “Didn’t you hear Cana today? She could see that we were disgustingly in love then we arrive here and you say that stuff to me and I didn’t see it coming and-”

“Sorry, sorry, sorry.” Juvia grabbed his face and kissed his lips quickly a few times. “Juvia was being a fool and she won’t be anymore.”

Gray put his hands on her hips and grabbed them a little too harshly. “Don’t talk about leaving again.”

She nodded. “Okay.”

The Ice Mage pulled her up and placed her on the kitchen counter. “And don’t even _think_ about taking Urian away.”

“I won’t.” Juvia promised and kissed him. “I’m sorry.” She caressed his hair before diving in again to kiss him and when things were getting heated, Gray pushed her away to get something inside one of the bags and Juvia waited, confused.

Once he found what he was looking for, he gave it to her and she frowned. “What’s this?”

“Chocolate.” Gray told her, returning to his spot in front of her. “You told me it was the thing you missed the most and I promised I would get you some when we returned.”

“You remembered that? It was years ago.” Gray just shrugged trying to be nonchalant and Juvia hugged him. “You were mad at me but you still remembered? Thank you.”

“Just…” Gray sighed in defeat. “Don’t doubt me again.”

“I won’t.” She kissed him once more for a few moments. “I know we are tired from everything that happened today, but Juvia couldn’t help it but to notice when she was bathing Uri that you have hot water and a tub that fits two people. And the only bed is currently occupied by our son, so…”

“I don’t like hot showers, but hell yeah.” Gray grabbed her by under her thigh so she wrapped her legs around his waist and led them to his bathroom.

**#**

Juvia woke up the next morning after feeling the bed move and when she opened her eyes, she was gifted with the most adorable view: her son looking at her, his blue curls in a mess and his dark eyes, just like his father’s, still sleepy.

“Good morning, baby.” Juvia whispered to her son, smiling.

“Moning mommy.” Urian answered her back, grinning. He could speak a few words and some sentences, even if the words sometimes came out missing a letter or mispronounced.

“Are you hungry?” She asked and when the boy nodded, she kissed his cheek. “Okay, mama is going to make something for you to eat, alright? After I change your diaper.” Juvia was about to get up when she felt Gray’s arms tighten around her.

“I’ll change him.” Gray said, his voice rough from sleep. He kissed the back of her neck before he sat on the bed.

“Hi daddy.” Urian said, two fingers inside his mouth and with a smile. Gray looked over his shoulder.

“Hi, little man.” The Ice Mage smiled. “Did you sleep well?”

“Yes.” The boy nodded. “With mommy.” Urian looked to where Juvia was lying between the two of them – they had pushed the bed close to the wall so Urian wouldn’t fall from it while Juvia slept in the middle and Gray on the other end.

“Did you now?” Gray stretched his arms before he got up. “Come on, Uri, let’s change that diaper so we can go have breakfast.” The little boy got up from the bed and would’ve stepped on Juvia’s stomach if Gray hadn’t picked him up before. “Hey, careful with your mother.” He scolded his son, who looked ashamed in his father’s arms. “Apologize.”

“Sorry mommy.” Urian said and Juvia sat on the bed.

“It’s alright, honey.” Juvia told their son before she smiled to Gray. “Juvia’s going to prepare something for us to eat.” Gray hummed in agreement and gave her a peck on the lips. “Are we going to the Guild after?” She got up from the bed and Gray started to walk towards the bedroom door, Juvia following close behind.

“Yeah, we have to tell what happened in detail to Master; yesterday was more about seeing everyone in shock about Urian.”

“Oh, you go, then.” Juvia told him and Gray turned around to stare at her in confusion. “Juvia is going to clean the apartment today.”

Gray finally understood. “This place is a mess, sorry.” He looked around. “I’ll stay and help you.”

“No, go ahead. If you take Urian with you Juvia will do things much faster without him here, otherwise I’ll be worried about watching him.” She smiled to her son and then to Gray. “Juvia will go meet you there when she’s finished.”

“Alright.” Gray agreed. “We’ll find a bigger place soon, alright?” Juvia nodded. “This little guy needs a room of his own, he’s getting too big.” He tickled his son, who laughed out loud as Juvia walked towards the kitchen with a smile on her lips.

**#**

They spent the next week adjusting to their new life back in their times and Urian seemed to be adapting quite well with his new clothes and the people around them. Even as a shy boy, Urian seemed to be slowly accepting that his new life had a lot of noisy people around.

Knowing that gossip would sure spread, Gray called Lyon a few days after they settled, asking if he could come to Fairy Tail the sooner he could, they had something important to talk about. Lyon was confused, but told him that he could be in Magnolia in two days and Gray nodded.

Just as he said he would, Lyon arrived at the time he promised, two days after the call. Gray was in front of the Guild, waiting with his hands on his pants’ pockets when he saw Lyon coming in his direction.

“Hey.” Gray greeted him once the other man was close enough to him.

“Hey.” Lyon smiled and when he took in Gray’s appearance, he frowned. “You look different. I just saw you last month, but it seems…”

“Yeah, about that…” Gray scratched the back of his head. “Ready for another situation like when I returned from Tenroujima?”

Lyon groaned. “Oh, god. Not again.”

“Again.” Gray nodded.

“How long this time?” Lyon sighed.

“Five years for us, two weeks for you.”

“Damn.” The Lamia Scale mage’s eyebrows went up in surprise. “What happened?”

“A Time Mage brought us back in time and-” Gray started, but Lyon interrupted.

“You keep saying ‘us’. Who else was there with you?”

Gray took a deep breath. “Well… Juvia.”

“Oh.” Lyon was surprised. “For _five_ years, you say ?”

“Yeah.” Gray stared at the other man for a moment. “And, well… A lot of things can happen in five years.”

Understanding the hidden meaning of his words, Lyon asked: “What exactly _did_ happen?”

Before Gray had the chance to answer his childhood friend, he heard the voice of his son calling for him. “Daddy!”

Gray turned around and saw the child running towards him with a big smile and his blue curls bouncing. The Ice Mage kneeled and opened his arms, waiting for the boy to hug him and when he did, Gray lifted him up from the ground. “Hey, kid.”

Juvia wasn’t too far behind his son and Gray could see she had her mom face on. “Urian Fullbuster, you _cannot_ just run runaway like that, mister!” When she saw that her son was with his father and whom he was with, she smiled. “Oh, Lyon-sama! Hi!”

“Urian… _Fullbuster_?” Lyon said slowly, trying to understand the meaning of the words and when he did, he gasped. “Oh god, is he… yours?” Lyon’s eyes were so wide it concerned he other Ice Mage.

“Yeah.” Gray nodded. “He’ll be two in five months.”

Lyon was clearly trying to wrap his mind around it, because he just kept staring at the three people in front of him. It was clear to whom the boy belonged with the blue curls and dark eyes, but it seemed so unreal. He had visited Gray a month before and the Fairy Tail Mage still blushed when confronted about his feelings towards Juvia, but they obviously had a child.

“But you…” Lyon tried. “When did…? What…?”

“Oh, seems like this will take some time.” Juvia giggled and stopped next to Gray. “Maybe Urian and Juvia walked in a bad moment. It would’ve been easier if we hadn’t interrupted, but _someone_ is misbehaving today.” Juvia gave her son a look and the boy looked down, knowing he was wrong.

“Is that true, Urian? Are you giving trouble to your mother?” Gray asked the boy in his arms, who certainly looked guilty. “I know this place is new and you want to look around, but you have to stay close to me or to your mom.” The boy nodded and hid his face on the crook of his father’s neck.

“He’s too curious for his own good.” Juvia sighed and caressed her son’s back. “And he’s getting faster each day.”

“I know.” Gray nodded. “He was used to run around back home, but here he can’t.”

“He’ll get used to it.” The blunette smiled.

Lyon watched the scene in front of him with interest and he could see that the couple in front of them was at ease – unlike a month before. Yet, there he was, calmly discussing their son’s antics, like an old married couple.

“Are you two married?” Lyon blurted out before he could prevent himself and the couple looked at him in surprise.

Gray looked at Juvia and then back to the man. “When we were back in the past, we had to pretend we were. But… well, it has been almost five years.” Gray shrugged. “At this point it would be more of a formality than anything else.”

Lyon saw Juvia’s smile falter and something flash in her eyes, but it was gone as fast as it appeared and her smile returned.

“Oh.” It was the white haired man’s answer.

“Are you staying for a few days?” Juvia asked him and when Lyon nodded, she smiled. “Well, then. We will have to talk later; Juvia is going to take advantage of Urian being with his father and go to Fairy Hills to take the rest of her things to Gray-sama’s apartment.”

“Do you need any help?” Gray asked her and she shook her head.

“No. You two go and talk. Just keep an eye on Urian, would you? He likes to run off.”

Juvia tip toes and kissed her son’s cheek, then gave a peck on Gray’s mouth before smiling and waving at Lyon’s direction.

Once she was far away, Gray turned in Lyon’s direction. “Come on in. We have to catch on and Urian is due to a nap in an hour or so. After that he gets in a bad mood.” He started to walk towards the entrance of the Guild.

One month. It had been only one month since he last saw Gray yet there he stood, holding the child he had with the woman he loved. It appeared that every time Lyon approached Gray, he turned out to be a hundred steps ahead. And Lyon envied that. He _wanted_ that.

“Are you coming or not?” Gray called him and his son – who noticed was not being scolded anymore – stopped hiding his face to look over his father’s shoulder. “Come on, Uri. Call your Uncle Lyon.”

Lyon’s heart almost stopped with his words and when the boy called him (mispronouncing the name and saying it as ‘ _Yon_ ’) with laughter in his voice, he couldn’t help it but to feel slightly better. Gray wasn’t leaving him behind, on the contrary: he contacted Lyon so he could meet his son and be part of his new family.

“Yeah, I’m coming.”

**#**

A few days later, Juvia told Gray that they needed to take Urian to see a doctor and for a moment he feared their son had fallen ill, but the blunette was fast to reassure him that she just wanted to make sure the boy was healthy. Since the medical care they had in the past was quite rustic, it would be better if they took him to see a doctor from that age.

Gray agreed, of course, and suggested the three of them had a check-up just to make sure they were all fine.

Urian’s doctor looked absolutely confused with the boy’s history and how he was raised the first year and a half of his life, but after examining the child, he saw that Urian was developing just as any other child his age should. He gave Urian a couple of shots that were overdue and after getting out of the hospital, the boy was still whimpering softly in Juvia’s arms, who was trying to calm him down.

Their guild mates grew used of having another child around quite fast and even got used of Gray and Juvia being a couple. Master Makarov liked to spend time playing with Urian and Asuka and even Gajeel could be seen putting the boy on his shoulders, much to Urian’s delight – the boy called the Dragon Slayer _‘Jeel’_ and even if he looked annoyed, everyone could see a sparkle in Gajeel’s red eyes when he was with the boy. Natsu too grew fond of the Guild’s new addition and he found it hilarious that the kid seemed to have no inclination to like cold as his father did.

Gray took a few jobs, but nothing that lasted too long as he wasn’t feeling comfortable with leaving for more than a couple of days at time and Juvia couldn’t bring herself to do any jobs just yet, worried about their son even when Gray guaranteed that he would keep his eyes on their son all the time.

A month after they arrived from the past, the couple and Urian were at the Guild as usual. The boy was happily playing with Asuka, Wendy, Romeo, Happy and Charle being supervised by Viska and Alzack when Gray informed Juvia that he needed to go to pick up some new clothes he ordered for them and he would take it home before returning to the Guild.

Just a few minutes after Gray left, a very breathless Gajeel appeared at the Guild, followed by Lily and Levy. Everyone turned around to see why the Dragon Slayer seemed so distressed, but he paid no attention to any of them. He searched the crowd and when he spotted Juvia standing next to Lucy, he walked towards them – the other two close behind.

“Gajeel-kun? What-” Gajeel interrupted Juvia and grabbed her by the wrist and Levy stayed with Lucy while Lily looked at the direction of where his friend was taking the blunette.

“We need to talk. _Now_.” The Dragon Slayer snarled and pulled her away from the other two women until they were in a secluded corner of the Guild.

“What is it?” Juvia asked, curious and worried, as soon as he released her. He stared at her for a moment.

“I met Aria yesterday.” Gajeel told her. “He heard you had a child and… he still frequents shady bars and well, he was in one last week and he overheard a conversation from a group he never saw before.” Juvia didn’t understand what it had to do with her, but by Gajeel’s uneasiness, it was something important. “They are from up North, some kind of priests, and they talked about some kind of prophecy involving the end of the world by water.”

“Gajeel-kun I don’t…”

He didn’t let her finish the sentence. “Look, Aria said he heard that they needed ‘that Fairy Water Mage’s’…”

Juvia interrupted him. “Gajeel-kun, Juvia really doesn’t think she needs to worry about-”

The Dragon Slayer grabbed her by the shoulders and told her: “They said that they needed to get ‘that Fairy Water Mage’s _child’_ , Juvia.”

She blinked twice, not truly understanding the words. “What- what are you…?”

“Levy looked it up, that’s why we only arrived now.” Gajeel informed her. “They are priests of Calypso, some sea goddess or another and they have this prophecy that when a blue moon appears – that will be in a week time – she will return and the world will be covered in water and only the deserving will survive. I guess that it will be them.”

“I don’t understand why-” She mumbled.

“Calypso needs a vessel and they want it to be _you_.” Gajeel informed her. “They need it to be from a powerful Water Mage who is in synchronization with the element and you, Juvia… I’ve never seen another Water Mage who is as comfortable with it than you.”

“B-but why they would be after…. Why would they want…?” Juvia tried to understand what reason would they have to talk about her son.

“Because…” Gajeel hesitated. “Calypso lost her child and she got so angry she made the world disappear under water a few thousand years ago. And according to what we discovered, the vessel needs to be… in same state of mind.”

Juvia gasped when she understood the meaning of his words and it all came back to her: of both her and Gray in the past, about her getting pregnant, of Nhoj telling them that Urian was a fixed point in time and why they had to return close to when they left.

It was all about that moment.

“No.” Juvia whispered and Gajeel had to catch her because suddenly her knees felt weak when she started to have trouble breathing. “No. No. No.” She said with difficulty.

**#**

Gray was already three blocks away when he noticed a familiar shift in the air and he frowned when he looked up and saw the sky darkening, which was odd because it was supposed to be a sunny day.

He turned around and felt his heart stop for a moment when he saw the dark clouds above the Guild and he realized why it felt so familiar: it was Juvia’s magic and by the way it started pouring hard, she was getting more upset by the second.

It had been years since he saw her make rain so fast. Something was wrong. Something was _terribly_ wrong,

Gray started to run.

**#**

He arrived in a couple of minutes, soaked and looking around for her but he met with Alzack first at the door of the Guild.

“Where’s Urian? And Juvia?” The Ice Mage asked, breathless and worried.

“Urian’s with Viska, he is alright; playing with the children.” Alzack said and Gray could breathe a little better. “Juvia is inside. I don’t know what made her upset, but I saw Gajeel, Lucy and Levy with her.”

“Could you look after Urian a little longer?” Gray asked, anxious to get to her.

Alzack nodded. “Of course. Go.”

Gray ran inside and a moment later he saw a small commotion and knew Juvia was in the middle of it. He pushed some of his friends away and the ones who noticed him just stepped aside to give him free pass. Once he saw Juvia, he knew whatever happened had to be awful for her to be having a panic attack in Gajeel’s arms.

“Juvia.” He breathed and kneeled in front of her, trying to make her look at him, but she was focusing on trying to breathe. “Juvia, come on, don’t do this to me.” She finally looked up and Gray couldn’t believe the amount of pain and sorrow he could see in her blue eyes. He snapped out of it and put his hands on her cheeks to make her focused on him. “Juvia, you need to calm down. Whatever happened, we can fix it but you need to calm down right now.”

It took him a couple of tries, but she eventually started to breathe better and relaxed in Gajeel’s arms, to Gray’s relief, but it was short-lived, because a moment later she started to cry.

“What the hell happened?” Gray asked Gajeel, seeing that Juvia was in no shape to answer him at the moment.

“In my last mission, I-” Gajeel started, but Levy put a hand on his shoulder.

“Not here, Gajeel.” Levy told him softly tilting her head pointedly to the numerous people around them and he nodded.

The Dragon Slayer picked his friend from the floor and her legs still seemed to not work properly, but Gray picked her up and headed towards the medical bay. “Come too, Gajeel.” Gray said from over his shoulder. “Someone has to explain to me what this is all about.”

**#**

The Dragon Slayer’s words rang in Gray’s ears and he was trying to comprehend the situation they were in. There was some kind of cult trying to kill his son so his wife could become angry enough so an ancient sea goddess could use her body as a vessel to end the world.

What the hell?

Juvia was sitting on one of the beds; her sobbing had stopped, but tears would still fall from time to time. Master Makarov had joined them, alongside with Levy, Lucy plus Natsu and Erza, who saw the commotion and all of them was quiet.

“When is this blue moon?” Erza asked.

“Six days from now.” Levy informed her, her voice almost a whisper. “I found some things about them, and they seem to surface every couple hundred years and they manage to get a powerful mage, but they never found a perfect match: it always missed something and not one of them withheld this Calypso.” She hesitated. “Until now. Juvia fits _all_ their criteria.”

“He is just a baby.” Juvia said quietly but got everyone’s attention. “Why would they want to kill a baby?”

Gray strode towards her and put his hand on her shoulder, and he touched her cheek with his other hand. “Juvia, listen to me: no one is getting Urian. They can come and try, but they won’t be successful.” He rested his forehead on hers. “Do you understand me? He will be safe.”

“How?” Juvia asked in a whisper. “According to Levy-san these priests are powerful. And if they come here…”

“Yeah? We are more powerful than them.” Gray told her with certainty. “We will think of something and we will protect our son. Alright?” Juvia nodded with hesitance and he wrapped his arms around her.

“Gray, Juvia.” Natsu’s voice came from behind the Ice Mage and when he looked over his shoulders, Gray saw that the Dragon Slayer and the rest of their friends had their expressions serious. “We will not let anyone get to Urian.”

“I can’t ask you to-” Gray tried, but Lucy interrupted him.

“You don’t have to ask.” The blonde woman smile gently. “We are family.”

“We will come up with a plan to keep him safe.” Erza offered with a firm nod. “Him and Juvia.”

“Just focus on Urian, don’t mind me.” Juvia pushed Gray away just enough to get up from the bed, but as soon as she was up, she stepped closer to him once more.

“Juvia-” Gray tried but she interrupted him.

“Without Urian they have nothing.” The blunette said, drying her tears. “This… _Calypso_ won’t be able to use Juvia if Urian is safe. This blue moon will happen in less than a week.” The group watched as Juvia stepped away from Gray into the middle of the room. “Which means they will be coming for him in the next few days. And the… the best thing we should do before that is to send him-” she took a shaky breath as if taking courage to say the next words “we need to send him-”

Catching her way of thinking, Gray grabbed her wrist. “ _No_.”

The others seemed to understand what the Water Mage had in mind and decided to stay silent, except Master Makarov, who calmly walked towards the young couple.

“You two just learned this news and it’s something you can’t decide in a whip. Go, be with your son tonight and we’ll think about what we’ll do in the morning.” He said and after a moment of hesitance, Gray nodded and Juvia looked away. “It’s been an eventful afternoon and I think all of us needs some time to let it all sink in.”

They all nodded and Juvia was the first to walk away from the medical bay and Gray followed her to where Urian was still playing with the other children and when the blunette called his name, the boy grinned and ran towards his mother. Juvia kneeled on the ground and hugged Urian before picking him up from the ground.

“Mommy?” Urian asked, confused and when he saw tears running on his mother’s cheeks he put his hands on her cheeks. Gray was just a few steps behind when he heard his son.

“Hi, baby.” Juvia dried her eyes and smiled. “Let’s go home.”

“Awwww!” Urian complained.

Gray stepped closer to them and put an arm around both of them. “Come on, Uri. We’ll get ice cream before going home.” The couple chuckled, when the boy beamed in excitement and for a moment they forgot about what was coming their way.

**#**

After putting Urian to bed, Juvia closed the bedroom’s door and faced Gray, who was walking around the living room unable to stay put. They had pretended things were fine for a few hours for Urian’s sake, but with the boy asleep they needed to talk about the news.

“How credible is this threat?” Gray asked as soon as he saw her in the living room. “Is this Calypso a real thing? And these priests?”

“It was Levy-san who researched about it, so Juvia’s fairly certain it is.” The blunette answered. “And even if it is not true, those priests sure think it is and they will come for Urian and… and we have to prepare for that.”

“Goddammit.” Gray snarled, his hands in fists. “Maybe Aria heard it wrong. Maybe it’s not you these priests are after.”

“They were very specific. _Fairy Water Mage_? That’s me, can’t even argue. And if you know another one that fits the criteria and with a child, please, tell me because I would love to point _that_ person out to those priests.” Juvia sighed, already feeling her head throb. “Sorry, that was mean and Juvia shouldn’t have had said that. She would never-”

“I know.” Gray’s shoulders fell and he stepped closer and wrapped his arms around her and she did the same as they tried to find comfort in one another.

“Do you know why Juvia freaked out so much even if we are not sure we are at real risk?” She asked before Juvia let him go.

“Why?”

“Nhoj told us Urian was a fixed point in time, remember?” Her eyes watered and saw his confusion. “He told us Urian was going to be part of a big event soon in the future and… I think this is it.” She whispered the last words and Gray finally understood why she had such reaction earlier at the Guild.

“What?” His heart was beating faster and he pieced it all together.

“I think… this is why he had to be born.” Juvia told him. “Because these people will come after him.” She tried to hold in the tears, but failed miserably. “That’s how I know the-they will come for him.” She sobbed and Gray held her, his eyes wide.

“No.” Gray whispered, holding her tighter and glancing towards the door of the bedroom where their innocent child was asleep and the protective side of him was kicking in.

“Gray-sama.” Juvia put her hands on his cheeks. “He can’t be here for the next few days.”

“What? No.” Gray shook his head.

“Listen to me. _Listen_.” She said forcibly and he stared at her. “They know where to find Juvia and it is here in Magnolia. They expect Juvia and Urian to be here and if they actually come, Juvia knows the city and she can protect herself better when she knows her surroundings. But Juvia can’t fight if she’s afraid they will take him. That’s why-” he tried to interrupt her, but she kept talking “that’s why what I need is for you to take Urian somewhere else.”

Gray took a few steps back. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” Juvia tried to speak, but he was having none of it. “Are you suggesting that I _leave_ you here? With some kind of cult owned by nutjobs that want you to destroy the world, coming after you?”

“No, what Juvia is suggesting is that you take _our son_ to safety.” The blunette said, trying to talk to him calmly.

“Without _you_.”

“It’s me they actually want.” She tried to reason with him. “If they don’t find Urian here, Juvia doubts they will search for too long for-”

“I’m not leaving you here.” Gray interrupted her, almost screaming. “I don’t care what you say, there’s no way I’m leaving you here.”

“And what about our son?” Juvia raised her voice as well. “He comes first!”

“Of course he does and we will think of something, but no matter what I am _not_ leaving you.” Their eyes met and neither backed down.

“Gray-sama.” She sighed. “Juvia can’t fight if she doesn’t know her baby is safe. If _you_ are safe.”

“What about what _I_ think? Because I can’t just leave not knowing if _you_ are safe!” Gray grabbed her by her shoulders. “Can’t you understand it by now?”

“Understand what?”

“I can’t be without you.” He told her. “We will find a way to make Urian safe, but you and I are _not_ separating, do you understand me?” He brought his face closer to hers, their lips almost touching. “Wherever you go, I go.” He whispered before kissing her with passion.

“Gray-sama…” Juvia tried.

He interrupted her. “It’s not up for discussion, don’t even try it.” Juvia let him guide them both to the small couch and once he sat, he arranged for her to sit next to him and the blunette rested her head on his shoulder. “We will think of something for Urian and we will think something for you.”

“I know.” Juvia sighed, glad to have him by his side, but terrified about their future.

**#**

Juvia didn’t sleep that night, she kept looking at her son and thinking of ways to make him safe and the only thing preventing her from losing her mind was Gray’s embrace and Urian’s soft snores. By the morning, though, she had a plan.

Convincing Gray about it was easier than she thought, as he agreed Urian would be quite safe if they followed Juvia’s plan and would put their minds at rest if they managed to pull it off.

When they arrived at the Guild the next day, the couple went to speak with Makarov and the older man agreed as well that it was a good enough plan to make Urian safe, all they needed was the other people on board. Master went to talk to Polyuska while Gray went to the room they had the Lachryma in.

Juvia asked if Lucy could watch Urian for a bit and the blonde woman was excited to do so and so was Urian once the Stellar Mage summoned Plue and Happy plus Natsu joined them. Juvia smiled to her son before she found the person she wanted to talk to: Gajeel.

When he looked up and caught her gaze, he knew she wanted to talk to him and excused himself from where he was talking with Levy and Lily.

“What is it?” The Dragon Slayer asked once he was close enough to his friend. “Did you decide something?”

“Yes.” Juvia’s eyes watered. “It seems the threat is real and even if it isn’t, we can’t risk it.” He nodded. “So… Juvia has a favor to ask you.”

“Name it.” Gajeel said promptly. He was quite fond of the boy – more than he let people know, but Juvia could see right through him.

The blunette took a deep breath. “I need you to take Urian somewhere safe.”

**#**

“ _Wazzup Gray!_ ” Lyon greeted him with a grin through the lachryma.

“Are you alone?”

Lyon frowned with the other man’s tone and nodded. “ _Yeah. Why? What’s going on?_ ”

Gray closed his eyes for a second. “I need your help.”

To say that Lyon was taken aback was an understatement. He could count in one hand the number of times he had asked for his help and all of them were quite serious situations. “ _Of course_.” He answered. “ _But what’s going on?_ ”

“Someone is trying to take Urian so Juvia can help them destroy the world.” Gray answered with a sigh and when Lyon looked baffled and confused, Gray offered him a small version of what happened and by the time he was done, Lyon was fuming that people were trying to kill his nephew and trying to make his sister-in-law get possessed by some angry goddess bitch.

“ _I can be in Magnolia in-_ ” Lyon said between gritted teeth and praying for a fight.

“No, that’s not what I need your help with.” Gray stopped his friend. “What I need you to do is… to hide Urian.”

“ _What?_ ” Lyon asked in disbelief.

“Juvia and I agreed that he is safer away from here.” He informed the other man. “And there’s no one else out there that I trust him with.”

The Lamia Scale mage was taken by surprise. “ _Gray…_ ”

“Lyon.” Gray said, trying to control his emotions. “I am trusting you with _the most_ important thing in my life, do you understand me?”

The white haired man blinked a couple of times before his expression become serious. “ _Listen to me, Gray: no one is taking Urian. I will protect him with my life if necessary._ ” Gray nodded, not trusting to speak at that time. “ _The boy looks like Juvia-chan too much, of course I’ll do what I can to keep him safe. I mean, one day he might be my stepson and-_ ”

“Oh, shut up.” Gray scolded Lyon and smirked, the white haired man also smiled and a few seconds later he became serious again.

“ _They are my family too, you know?_ ”

“Yeah.” Gray tried to smile.

“ _They will be fine._ ”

“I know.”

**#**

Juvia didn’t seem to want to let Urian too far way from her after she talked with Gajeel and neither did Gray. When Master Makarov returned from Polyuska’s house with the potions, the couple was relieved to know that they were at least on track.

After also talking with Levy and Lily – in which both promptly agreed helping – all they could do was to wait the next night and prepare to take Urian to Lamia Scale where Lyon would be waiting.

Gray knew it would only be for a few days, maybe a week until Urian could return to them and maybe they were all overreacting, but his gut was telling that something was going to happen.

Three days after learning about the potential risk, they had to say good-bye to their boy and it was easily the hardest thing they ever did. When it was close to the time of the last train to leave Magnolia, Gray stepped closer to her and Juvia knew it was time to let him go.

Gray took the boy from Juvia and hugged him. “Be a nice boy for Gajeel and Levy, Uri.” The Ice Mage was trying his best to not look scared about everything happening. “I love you very much and I’ll see you in a few days.” Urian smiled to his father and Gray had to give him to Juvia and blink the tears away.

Juvia kissed the boy’s cheek and Urian did the same. She smiled sadly and fighting her tears. “Mommy loves you so much, do you know that?”

“Love you mommy.” Urian said it back with a grin; Juvia hugged him tightly before give one of the potions Master got from Polyuska to Urian and the boy fussed because of the taste of it. Gray quickly gave him a piece of chocolate and Urian stopped whimpering, being much more interested in the new delicious food.

With the child in her arms, Juvia walked to where Gajeel, Natsu and Wendy were and the three of them sniffed the boy.

“We can’t smell him.” Gajeel assured his friend. “Levy will change his clothes because it still has his, yours and Fullbuster’s scent on it, but besides that I can’t smell him at all.” Juvia breathed in relief; she knew that the main reason Lucy was abducted by Gajeel when they were still in Phantom Lord was because of her scent. Juvia decided to make it even harder if someone really wanted to find her son.

Levy stepped beside Juvia and the Water Mage kissed her son one more time. “Bye, baby.” She whispered to him. “See you soon, alright?” Urian nodded and raised his arms so Levy could pick him up and Juvia thanked the girl. When she heard that Gajeel was going to take Urian to Lamia Scale, she immediately offered to go with them. It wasn’t as if she didn’t trust Gajeel to look after Urian, but the boy would be missing his parents and she had a feeling that the Dragon Slayer would panic when he saw a dirty diaper. Besides, Levy and Gajeel going out together was hardly news, so they should be safe.

Urian’s attention soon was caught by Levy as she wrapped him in a blanket and the boy found it hilarious that he had to hider underneath. Gajeel approached them and the three left the Guild to take the last train – they wanted to avoid being seen arriving at Lamia Scale and arriving there at night would most likely assure that – and the Dragon Slayer looked over his shoulder, to Juvia, who just nodded, he stepped after the petite blunette and left.

Once the three were outside the Guild, Juvia started crying and Gray’s heart broke all over again. He knew, of course, that he loved his son more than anything and he had his own bond with him, but as Urian’s mother, Juvia had even a deeper bond than he did and if Gray pained of letting their son go, Juvia was suffering a hundred times worse than him.

Gray put his arms around her and she sobbed harder, fisting his shirt. The Guild was quiet during the whole ordeal, feeling the pain of the young parents as they tried their best to protect their child.

“He’s going to be fine, Juvia. We’ll get him back in a few days.” Gray tried to soothe her with whispered words, but the blunette just kept crying.

**#**

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ~run to the hills~


	4. Part IV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The last one! I promise this is it this time. LOL

 

The night Urian left, Gray took Juvia home and once she got inside his apartment, she had locked herself in the bathroom for hours and Gray could hear her crying and his heart broke with every sob he heard. It was the first time they spent so much time apart and if Gray had to guess, Urian was giving just as much trouble to Gajeel and Levy.

After giving her time to cry and when she was much quieter inside the bathroom, Gray knocked and opened the door. Juvia was seated at the edge of the bathtub, still sniffling and tears still falling, but she seemed more controlled, then.

Gray kneeled in front of her and got one of her hands on his. “Juvia? Come on, let’s go to bed.”

“Our baby is not here.” Juvia whined and Gray got up, helping her get up as well. “Do you think they got there safe?”

“Of course.” By the late hour, Lyon had already received Urian at Lamia Scale. “You know how much Lyon liked Uri. He will have fun while in there.”

“I don’t like that.” Juvia said while he led her towards their bedroom. “I want him back here. With us. Like he is supposed to.”

“Me too.” Gray agreed and made her sit down on their bed. “Just a few more days and he will come back to us and then you have my permission to coddle him until he’s an adult.”

Juvia’s lips went upwards just a bit with his words. “Juvia will do that with or without your permission.”

“I like to at least think that I have some say about that.” Gray sat by her side and put an arm around her shoulders and the blunette leaned on him, her head resting on his chest. “He will be fine.”

“He has to be.” Juvia whispered.

They stayed in silence for a few moments, both seeking comfort into the other before Gray told her they needed to sleep – by the way she cried and the day they had, she would be more than exhausted and so was he. Juvia nodded her agreement and she took off her boots before lying down on the bed, Gray following her a moment later. He put his arms around her and kissed the back of her head.

Juvia, though, barely slept that night.

**#**

The sun was barely up when Gray woke up and when he reached to the side where Juvia slept, he found it cold. He frowned and opened his eyes and just as he suspected, her side was empty. Gray sat on the bed and looked around the room, looking for her and was surprised to see her leaning on the wall in front of Urian’s small bed.

“Juvia?” Gray asked, carefully getting up from the bed. “Why are you up?”

“Urian usually wakes me up at this hour.” Juvia told him, still looking at the empty bed. “Juvia thinks she got used to the time and just got up.”

He sighed and grabbed her hand. “Come back to bed, it’s still too early to be up.” Juvia let herself be handled and when they were by the bed, Gray tugged her hand so she could lie down, but she didn’t let him. He looked over his shoulder and frowned.

Juvia let go of his hand and Gray turned around. She put her hands on his shoulders and pushed him down the bed and he sat down, waiting for her next move. Juvia, then, pulled the shirt of his she was wearing and Gray’s breath got caught in his throat – for years they’ve slept together but seeing her naked form always made him feel like that first night.

“Uh… Juvia?” Gray gulped once she got rid of her panties and straddled him – his own underwear the only barrier between them. “What are you-?”

She put a finger on top of his lips. “I need to feel something.” She told him in a whisper. “I need to feel something other than missing our son.” Juvia rested her forehead on his, her fingers twining themselves on his hair and felt his hands on her waist, bringing her closer. “Please, Gray-sama.” Her eyes watered.

Gray looked at her and his heart ached to see her that way and he shared that pain with her, he also was afraid of what could happen to their son, but was also terrified about what could happen to Juvia. She didn’t seem to think about what could happen to her, which made him even more scared.

“What do you need?” Gray asked her in a whisper.

“You.” She crashed her lips on his and Gray answered in kind.

**#**

Gray let her set the pace on top of him even is his hands were on her hips and he wanted her to go faster, but that was for her, for them to feel better, to forget for a few minutes what they were going to face. Gray whimpered when Juvia leaned and kissed his neck while moving way too slow for his taste on top of him.

“Juvia, please.” He whined and she stopped altogether. Gray almost groaned in frustration until he looked into her eyes and he saw a change in the way she looked at him. Gray knew that look and he was damn well pleased to see it there.

He turned them around so he was on top of her and before he could think anything else, he was thrusting into her, feeling her surrender to him, wrapping her arms around his shoulder and she moaned his name. Gray grabbed her by the back of her thigh, pulling it up and suddenly he was driving so much deeper than before.

“Gray-sama.” Juvia breathed, her cheeks rosy, hair a mess and easily the most beautiful thing Gray’s ever seen. “So- so close.” The blunette whimpered.

“Juvia.” He gritted between his teeth, feeling that he was also close to coming. “Look at me.” She looked glassy eyed at him and when their gaze met, Gray told her, sliding a hand between their bodies to touch just above where they met: “I love you.”

Her whole body tightened as she found her release, squeezing around him and two more thrusts were all he needed to spill himself inside her. Gray fell on top of her, both their breathings still hard for a few moments. Once he felt more like himself, Gray rolled to the side of the bed and immediately brought her close to him and she snuggled closer to him.

Gray caressed her back as Juvia traced patterns with her fingers on his chest. For the first time in days they seemed to be less clouded about what was supposed to happen in a few days.

“You haven’t woken me like that in a while.” Gray told her and Juvia giggled.

“If you haven’t noticed, we have a toddler and we live in an one bedroom apartment.”

“We need a bigger place.” Gray sighed and turned around a bit so the front of their bodies were pressed together. “At least two bedrooms. Uri will need a room of his own as soon as he comes back. I kind of like mornings like this.”

Juvia smiled and put a hand on his cheek. “I love you.”

“And I, you.” Gray kissed her and they stayed in silence for a few moments.

“Gray-sama…” She said and he looked at her. “Juvia needs you to promise something.” Gray frowned in question. “If something happens to me, I need you to have Urian’s needs as a priority.”

“What?”

“We don’t know what the next few days reserves to us, but if something happens to me…”

“Don’t speak that way.” Gray sat on the bed and Juvia followed him, a sheet covering her naked body. “Nothing is going to-”

“We don’t know that.” Juvia told him and touched his back. “All Juvia is asking is for you to not let him have the same kind of childhood we had.” He looked into her eyes and she knew he understood her: after they lost their families, they suffered a lot before they found Fairy Tail and Juvia didn’t want the same thing to happen to her son. “If something happens to me, you need to make _his_ necessities _your_ priority. Forget about me, all that matters is him.”

“Juvia…” Gray began, but she interrupted him.

“Trust me, Gray-sama, Juvia will try her best to never put you in that position, but she just needs the reassurance that you will do whatever it takes to make our son happy.”

Gray sighed, knowing she wouldn’t stop until he promised. “I promise.” He said grudgingly. “But you better promise not let anything happen to you or I’ll be _really_ pissed off at you.”

“Don’t worry, Juvia will do her best.” She smiled and kissed his cheek. “We have a couple of hours before we are needed at the Guild.” The blunette whispered in his ear. “What should we do with our time?”

Gray pushed his worries away from his mind for the moment and tackled her back to the bed.

**#**

The day of the Blue Moon, everyone at Fairy Tail looked tense and Gray refused to leave Juvia’s side – wherever she went, he was right behind her. There was no way in hell he would let anyone take her. Just the day before they talked to Urian by Lachryma and even though the boy didn’t understand why he was away and absolutely didn’t understand why he could touch his parents through the Lachryma and cried a lot, he was safe.

At Sunset, Juvia felt something cold down her spine. She got up from her spot by the Fairy Tail bar and Gray got up with her.

“What is it?”

“I…” She hesitated. “I just got this bad feeling…” She looked at him. “I think they are here.” Juvia searched for his hand and squeezed it. “There’s this…. I can’t explain… maybe a pull? My Water Magic is feeling something call it.”

Gray closed his eyes, trying to sense something – after all, Ice was still water, just in a different state – and he could feel it, a tiny feeling of something calling him. “I can feel it too.” Gray told her. “I had to concentrate a lot, but it’s here.” They looked at each other for a moment. “Don’t get away from me whatever happens.” Juvia nodded and Gray looked around their friends. “Guys, it appears that whoever was coming for Juvia and Urian arrived.”

“We are ready.” Natsu said, hands in fists and looking very focused. “We are going to kick their asses.” Their friends agreed and Juvia’s eyes watered, seeing that their Guild would do everything to help them.

They started do go towards the doors of the Guild – it was decided that they would take the fight outside and Juvia stopped Gray from following for a moment and told him: “Remember your promise.”

Gray’s jaw tightened and he nodded. “Remember yours.” Juvia tip toed and gave him a peck on the lips before they went out as well.

**#**

Natsu’s sense of smell and heightened hearing helped them get by the docks – if they wanted a fight, they would take the fight to them. There were about fifty people wearing dark blue robes and weird pointy hats which also had a thin clothing covering their faces. Five of them, though, had their clothes in a much lighter shade of blue and another with white clothing.

“We knew you’d bring the Vessel to us.” The one wearing the white clothes said, it was a man and he took a few steps towards where Juvia was and Gray immediately put himself in front of her.

“If you value your life, turn around and leave.” The Ice Mage snarled. “So far your only crime is that you are nuts, but if you try anything…”

“The Prophecy is clear.” The same man said, taking a large urn from a box behind them. “Tonight is the night the Goddess will arise and drown the unfaithful.”

“Can we please knock them down now?” Natsu asked. “I’d just love to pound the crazy outta them.”

“You and your kind will vanish from this world tonight. Miss Juvia Lockser, we’ve been waiting for you to be ready for a while now.” They couldn’t see it, but everyone could almost hear the grin in his voice and that his eyes were at Juvia. “And when we heard you had a child just in time for the Blue Moon… We knew it was our chance.”

“Go away.” Juvia’s voice was cold when she stepped out from behind Gray – of which he protested with a groan. “I will _not_ participate in whichever you have prepared for tonight.”

“Oh, you won’t have a choice.” His voice was wicked and Juvia saw him put the urn on the floor and opening the lid, a bit of a strange dark blue smoke came from inside it. “Bring the child.”

Juvia watched in horror as two men with dark blue robes appeared, each holding one arm of her son. His face was red as he screamed, cried and her heart stopped beating for a moment.

“Urian? How?” She whispered to herself. “No. _No! Urian!_ ” She took a couple of steps towards where they were holding him, his cries louder every second that passed but two strong wrapping themselves around her. “Let me go! Urian!” In the back of her mind, she could hear thunder as her magic make heavy clouds appear.

“Juvia?” It was Gray’s voice, but she ignored him completely while she watched the man in white clothes draw a dagger from his belt and before she could do anything else, she saw blood coming from the cut on his throat and then his crying stopped.

To her, it was as if the world stopped as his white shirt got tainted with red. Despair and pain overcame her, a thousand times worse than the time Gray died right in front of her eyes. A scream came from deep down her and the sound echoed everywhere at the same time a wave of magic left her, there were no more arms around her and she fell down to her knees. She screamed again in pure agony when Urian’s little body hit the ground. Then she screamed again, again and again.

**#**

Gray was thrown back with the force of Juvia’s magic and her screams sent cold down his spine because he has never heard those sounds coming out from her before. It was every sound of torment combined together. It started to rain so much no one could see further than two feet away.

“What the hell…?” Gray heard Natsu say from behind him and the Ice Mage got on his feet. “Gray! What the hell happened?”

“She just… went off!”  The Ice Mage told his friend and tried to get closer to Juvia, but the waves of magic coming from Juvia were too strong and she still didn’t stop screaming. “Juvia! Fuck, Juvia, listen to me!”

“She is ready.” Gray heard the guy with the white robes yell to his crazy friends. “We opened her heart. It is time to call Calypso!” The crazies cheered and started to chant some nonsense.

“I thought Juvia would have to be at the same state of mind for this to go down!” Lucy said and Gray remembered the last thing she spoke: their son’s name.

“Warren!” Gray called his friend and when she saw the dark haired man between their friends. “Warren, can you get in Juvia’s mind to see what the hell is she thinking?”

“Sure thing.” He put two fingers on his temple and a few seconds later, he gasped and looked at Gray with his eyes wide. “Oh, shit. Gray, they made her… they got into her head and made her see Urian dying.”

The Ice Mage became pale and his eyes got wider – of course Juvia was leashing out, she had just seen their son die. “Fuck.” He said. “If she thinks he died, those crazy people will try to perform the ritual.” He looked to his friends. “We need to take down whoever used that magic on her.” They nodded. “I’ll try to talk to her.”

As everyone from Fairy Tail ran towards the men, Gray tried to get closer to Juvia, but the waves of magic coming out of her were pushing him back a bit with every step he took towards her, plus, the water from the rain wasn’t making it any easier for him to see, but what he could see worried him.

There was a dark blue smoke surrounding Juvia and for the life of him, at one point, it seemed as if the smoke took the form of a woman floating around the blunette and he felt his blood turn cold at the sight. Was that…? No. It couldn’t be.

Juvia was on her knees, arms around herself while she cried and screamed the lost of their son. Gray never felt such pain in his life than seeing the woman he loved in such state. He needed to tell her what she saw was a fabrication, Urian was safe.

With difficulty, Gray managed to approach her enough to hear whispers around her, coming from the blue smoke: “He is dead. You didn’t protect him and now he is dead.” The voice was cold and it sounded like a hiss from a snake. “Say ‘yes’ and we will destroy the world. Everyone will pay for what they did.” The voice said. “Let me help you get revenge.”

He saw Juvia reach for the smoke and touch it, an even stronger wave of magic almost made Gray fall on the ground. Knowing it was bad news, Gray used his magic to create a long sword and with all the strength he had, he waved it and the blade went right through the smoke. There was a loud hiss and Gray did the same thing two more times before the smoke got farther away from them.

“Juvia.” Gray kneeled in front of her, grabbed one of her hands, the one she touched the smoke with and squeezed it. “Juvia, look at me.” All the blunette could do, was sob and tightened her arm around her stomach. They were soaked to the bone – Gray never witnessed such strong storm –, around them their friends fought but at the moment, he couldn’t help them: he had to make her remember Urian was fine. “Juvia, Urian is fine.”

Juvia shook her head. “He is dead. Oh my god, my baby is dead.” She sobbed. “I couldn’t do anything and now he is dead.”

“No, no, no.” Gray touched her cheek. “Juvia, it is all in your head, they made you see that, but is _not_ true. Urian is not even in Magnolia.” He tried, but she shook her head. “Goddamit, Juvia, look at me.” He yelled at her and cupped her face, raising it so she could look at him. “If Urian were dead, Juvia, I’d let you destroy the world. Hell, I’d _help_ you do it. But he is _not_ dead.” He saw a glimpse of hope in her eyes. “Right now, he is fine; whatever you saw, it’s not true. But if you let it consume you, you’ll give them what they want.”

“He is alive?” Juvia asked him.

“Yes.” The rain around them softened a bit, but didn’t go away. “What you saw was only inside your head. Our son is alive.” Gray saw the moment she believed in him because her whole body went limp and she threw herself into his arms, crying, but that time in relief.

“No!” The smoke around them hissed and suddenly Gray felt something wrap itself around his throat, squeezing it so hard he couldn’t breathe. He tried to get it off of him, but his hands just went through it. Juvia let him go and even in his despair of trying to breathe, he saw her eyes narrow in anger.

He watched as she got up, used her magic to make a wall with water in front of her. Gray had almost lost consciousness when she used the water from the wall to create small projectiles and then, she was ‘firing’ them and Gray could breathe again – it appeared her aim was pretty flawless.

“First you make me think my son is dead and now you tried to kill my husband?” Juvia yelled at the blue smoke as she used her water to attack it. “You will not have my help, you bitch.” The smoke hissed with each attack until it went back to the urn it came off. “Try the next Blue Moon in a thousand years.” Juvia kicked the urn. Gray sighed in relief when he saw his Juvia was back. She seemed to remembered about him and quickly went to her knees in front of him. “Oh, Gray-sama… Are you alright?”

“Yes.” He nodded, a hand on his throat. “Glad you are yourself again.”

She paled. “If you had seen what Juvia saw…”

“Hey, hey, hey.” Gray touched her cheek. “I’m not blaming you. If it had been me, I’d made the whole town freeze.”

Juvia paled once more and got up from the ground. She walked towards the end of the docks, Gray following her, noticing how their friends had everything under control, and once they reached the end of the docks, Juvia gasped. “Oh, no.”

“What is it?” Gray asked.

“Look.” Juvia pointed down and all he saw was the ocean floor for almost a mile. Gray frowned and she explained it to him. “When Juvia touched that… smoke, Calypso… she used my magic to… do this.” She pointed to the ground.

“And what exactly is ‘this’?”

“She summoned a tsunami.” She looked at the horizon. “And it’s coming.” Gray looked at the direction Juvia was looking and his breath got caught in his throat to what he saw with the light from the Blue Moon. “Juvia needs to go there and stop it.” She took a step, but Gray caught her by the hand.

“No.” He shook his head.

“Gray-sama, Juvia is the one who summoned that.”

“What we need to do is go to high ground and take as many people as we can.”

She shook her head. “Juvia can stop that wave so Magnolia is not underwater in the morning. People would lose everything.”

“You have been releasing magic ever since they made you see Urian dying. You must be exhausted by now.”

“It doesn’t matter, Juvia can take care of that. It’s the least Juvia can do.” She said. “We are losing time here, Gray-sama.”

“What is going on?” Gray heard Erza’s voice coming from behind them and when they turned around, most of their friends were there.

“There’s a tsunami coming.” Juvia said and there was a general gasp and everyone tried to look at the horizon. “Juvia can stop it.” She turned to Gray. “Juvia _will_ stop it.” It seemed as he if was going to try to stop her once again, but she kissed his lips lightly and whispered to him: “Remember what you promised me.”

Knowing the fight was lost, Gray sighed and rested his forehead on hers. “You better come back.”

“Always.” She smiled. Juvia turned to where Natsu was with Happy on his head and say to the blue cat: “Happy-san, could you give Juvia a ride?”

“Aye!”

“Take as many people away from here, Juvia will try to not do any damage at all, but we never know.” She spoke to Erza, who nodded and with a final look to her friends and the man she loved before Happy flew her away.

**#**

“Are you sure you want to stay here, Juvia?” Happy asked her. Juvia stood in front of a large wave, which was coming fast. She panicked a little when she couldn’t change her body into water, but pushed the thought away: she summoned the wave, she could slow it down.

“Yes, Happy-san.” Juvia smiled to the cat. “Juvia is fine.”

“Well, I am scared.” The cat admitted. “I’ll stay flying over waiting for you to call me to bring you back.”

“Thank you.” She watched as he flew away and she could feel the pull of the water, the way  the wave got closer. She dove and closed her eyes, gathering all of her energy – that was a strong one and it would take everything in her to stop it – she was so tired, so, so tired, but she couldn’t let a wave summoned by her power to let destroy the place she met the love of her life, the place she had her son, the place she found her family.

She would save the town for her son.

The memory of his blue curls bouncing, dark eyes just like Gray’s and the most sweet laughter while Gray threw him up in the air and caught him up again, Gray  with a smile of his own, his gaze full of love for their son.

They would be alright, she thought, before starting to slow down the wave.

**#**

From the shore, Gray watched as the wave slowed down and shrank in size, he breathed in relief, knowing that the most if could happen now would be a bit of a flood, but even so, he wouldn’t rest until Juvia was back. Hell, he’d only feel better once Urian was back and the three of them were back at his apartment.

They really needed another place to live. Preferably a house, so Uri could have a place to run like he did back in the past.

When the wave finally hit shore, it came to Gray’s waist but didn’t invade the town, to which he was grateful. Juvia would be glad to hear that; the people who tried to take Juvia were contained and the urn, was secured.

As time passed, Gray grew impatient when he couldn’t see Happy bringing Juvia back. He could see the cat flying around, but without Juvia and suddenly he felt a bad feeling going down his spine.

“Something’s wrong.” Gray whispered to himself. He was about to make a way with his ice towards where she was, when he spot Happy carrying her and he sighed in relief.

“Is she coming back?” Lucy asked, Natsu and Erza by her side as they stood next to him.

“It seems so.” Gray nodded. “I have a bad feeling.”

“Don’t think this way.” Lucy took his hand on hers. “She is fine.”

“She had used too much magic while she thought Urian was dead, and she did summon that tsunami and then stopped it, and I…”

“You are worried, we understand.” The blonde squeezed his hand. “But everything will be alright.”

“I hope so.”

They stayed in silence, watching as Happy flew both back and as soon as they could see it better, they noticed Juvia’s unconscious form and Gray’s heart stopped for a moment.

_‘Oh, god, don’t let her be dead’_ , he thought.

Gray reached for her when Happy was close enough to the ground and his friends asking about how was she were forgotten when he got her in his arms. She was so cold, unmoving.

“Juvia, don’t you dare do this to me.” He whispered, trying to feel her pulse. “Don’t you dare leave me.” It took him a moment, but he finally found a very light heartbeat. He took her into his arms and ran to the hospital.

**#**

Gray was pacing around the room while Polyuska took a look at Juvia – the doctor had already examined her and said that he didn’t find anything wrong with her physically, so, whatever it was that made her fall unconscious, had to be out of his knowledge, which meant it was of a magical source.

The old woman was working alongside with Wendy, who was trying her best to understand what was happening to Juvia and all Gray could think was how he would do with his life if she didn’t wake up, if he had to raise their son on their own. He couldn’t see himself doing that alone. He just couldn’t. She needed to wake up.

“I don’t understand how she’s solid.” Polyuska’s voice was full of curiosity and Gray stepped closer to them.

“What do you mean?”

“Her magic center is scattered.” The pink haired woman said without preamble. “She should’ve turned into water and lost at sea.”

“Polysuka-san!” Wendy reprimanded the older woman when Gray paled.

“It is the truth.” Polyuska shrugged. “What she does, changing her whole body into water, it is dangerous.” She turned to Gray. “She needs to have a certain amount of magic to gather her body together, but she seems to be at her very limit.”

“We’ve been on the limit before.”

“Oh, no, you have _not_.” Polyuska snorted. “The worse I’ve seen you human fairies, you were at about… ten percent of your magic and that’s pretty risky. This one,” she pointed at Juvia “is at one percent and even so, her magic center is all over the place. Who knows how long it will be until it is back together again.”

“Her… magic center?” Gray frowned, trying to understand.

Wendy was the one who answered it. “Every Mage has one, it’s between the lungs and just above the heart. Whenever a Mage goes too far over, it scatter and it takes months to pull it back together on their own. Some never do.”

“What does that mean to Juvia?”

“When you become a Mage, you unite your magic to your life force.” Wendy bit her lower lip. “At this moment… she’s at one percent, just like Polyuska-san said.”

Gray took a few deep breaths, trying to contain the fear inside him. “Alright. What do we do now?”

“Find whatever made her stay solid and strengthen it.” Polyuska said.

“What about her scattered center?”

The old woman gave him a look. “She can live without it, but if she changes her body into water, it’s over. First we strengthen what is keeping her together, then we rebuild her center.”

Gray nodded, feeling better that they had a plan and he watched as both women examined Juvia for a long time and both came up empty about what could be helping her. He looked to the clock on the wall and, even though he didn’t want to leave, he needed to call Lyon to let him know it was safe for Urian to come back home.

“I’m… I’m sorry, I need to use the Lachryma for a second, to let them know our son can return to Magnolia.” He told the women and was about to turn around and leave when he noticed Polyuska’s expression. It was as if she thought of something. “What? What is it?”

“How did I never thought of it before?” She told herself. Her hand glowed and she closed her eyes. She put her hand right on Juvia’s stomach and waited. When she opened her eyes, she smiled. “There it is!”

“What? What is it?” Gray asked, a spark of hope lit in his chest.

“I know why she didn’t change into water.” The pink haired woman told him. “It appears that she is with child.”

**#**

Gray stared blankly at the woman, trying to understand her words. It couldn’t be. Urian was barely more than a baby, they couldn’t be having another one. She had to be mistaken.

“It can’t be.” Gray shook his head. “When she was expecting Urian, she could change her body until she was about four or five months, afterwards she decided not to anymore because it could be dangerous.”

“Yes, but your first child has affinity with water, does he not?” Polyuska asked and all Gray could think was about how Urian loved to play around the water and how many times Gray thought his son would grow up to be a Water Mage like his mother. “I’ll take it as a yes by the look on your face. Well, it appears that this one” she pointed at Juvia’s stomach “takes after you. The one percent that holds her together.”

He looked at her flat stomach. “But…”

“It is about two months old, if I’m not mistaken, too small to be perceived at my first examination, but strong enough to protect itself by protecting its mother. Marvelous.”

Two months. Gray tried to think about a time when they could’ve conceived a child two months before; it wasn’t back in the past because Juvia had had her period a few days before Nhoj reappeared and after that Urian had gotten a little cold and slept between them. When they arrived to their time, they had to get used to the new life and Urian insisted on sleeping with them for days even after they got him his bed. So, when…?

His eyes widened when he made the connection: the day they arrived, they had had a fight and after they cleared the air, Juvia asked him if he wanted to join her at the bathtub and it had been so long since they had the chance, that they took it.

“Oh, god.” Gray breathed. It was what kept her alive, that one time the day they arrived. “What do we do now that we know it?”

“We will make it stronger.” Polyuska told him. “We are going to make _you_ strengthen it.”

“How?” He asked, confused.

“Come over here.” She told him and Gray followed. She grabbed his hand and put it right over Juvia’s lower stomach. “Keep your hand in there.”

“What?”

“It will maintain its strength by putting a person with similar magic as close to it as we can. The longer your hand stays there, the better are the chances.”

**#**

Dawn was breaking when Gray blinked awake; he must’ve fallen asleep without even realizing it. He raised his head from the mattress Juvia was lying on and noticed that she was just as pale as the night before. There was a bag with water between her breasts; according to Polyuska, it would help her center to return to its place if the was around her element.

Gray, then, looked at his hand across Juvia’s stomach and caressed it with his thumb. He looked around, but no one else was around, it was too early. The Ice Mage leaned in and kissed her stomach.

“Thank you.” He whispered. “Thank you for keeping her alive.” He didn’t even try to contain the emotion from his voice. “Now, just hang in there and don’t let go and I promise you’ll be very loved when you come out. Hell, you are loved _now_. When she waked up, she’ll be delighted. Just… hang in there and you’ll have the most amazing mother you could ever ask for. And a big brother who will most likely take you with him at his mission about making us crazy. And me… I’ll try my best.” Gray smiled. “Hang in there, kid.”

During that morning, Wendy came in the room to change the bag of water a few times, telling how it was ‘old’ and served its purposes. Gray tried his best to keep his hand on her stomach, to keep the unborn child strong. Polyuska, though, didn’t like it at all when she visited and Juvia had improved very little.

“The water bags are too slow.” She complained. “At this rate she’ll be unconscious when she delivers that child!” Gray thought of the horror of it for a moment, but pushed it away; she was going to wake up soon. “We need something else.”

Gray thought for a moment and then, it came to him. “Our son is arriving in a few hours.” The night before he asked Wendy to call Lamia Scale and Gajeel informed they would take the first train back. “If he does the same thing I do with my hand on her stomach, but over her magic center, will it make it faster? You said he had an affinity with water.”

Polyuska thought for a moment. “That might work. It would serve as a beacon for her magic to return to its place. To return it a hundred per cent will take a little while, but if he does it for just enough time so she wakes up… Let’s try it.”

Hours later, when Wendy entered the room saying she had scented Gajeel’s scent not too far away, Gray left Juvia’s bedside to greet his son.

The moment he saw the blue haired boy in Gajeel’s arms, it seemed as if all the feelings he had tried to suppress for the past few days came as one wave of emotion: he’d been so scared to lose Urian, scared of losing Juvia and trying to hold it all together that when Gajeel put Urian on the ground and the little boy ran to his arms, Gray was crying.

His son was alive. _Safe_. And now he would help his mother to get better as well. But first, Gray held on to him tight for a long time, just enjoying the feeling of the child’s warmth in his arms.

Urian babbled nonsense for awhile but one thing Gray understood right when he said it: _Mommy_.

With a kiss on the boy’s cheek, Gray took him to the room Juvia was and the moment the child saw his mother, he tried to get away from his father’s arms and into Juvia’s. Quietly, Gray tried to explain that his mother was hurt and he needed to be gentle and good, but he was too young to understand and when Gray put him on the bed, he tried to wake up Juvia.

“Shhh.” Gray said. “Your mom is sleeping.”

It seemed that Urian understood, because he repeated the words: “Shhhh mommy seeping.” And with a nod, he lied down next to her, snuggling close to her and soon, he also fell asleep – according to Gajeel and Levy, he had trouble sleeping in such strange environment. Gray moved Urian to lie on top of Juvia instead, careful to not put any weight on her lower abdomen and he watched the most precious people of his life, sleep.

Later, when Polyuska made her visit, Urian was still napping on top of her and the moment the woman examined Juvia, she smiled; it appeared that Urian would be the perfect beacon for Juvia’s center to recover.

The problem, though, happened when Urian woke up. He was an active child, he wanted to run around and had no idea how much it would mean for him to just lie next to his mother. Gray couldn’t fault him for being a normal child.

“We can take care of him, Gray, if you want to stay at the hospital with Juvia.” Mirajane said when their friends were visiting. “None of us would mind.”

Gray looked at Juvia’s unconscious form and was tempted to accept it – he didn’t want to leave her side – but her words popped inside his mind: _“If something happens to me, you need to make his necessities your priority. Forget about me, all that matters is him.”_

“I’ll take him home.” Gray gulped and grabbed Juvia’s hand. “Polyuska said that Urian helped a lot by just taking his nap next to her, the water bags will have to do during the night. His routine has been altered enough these past few days, we will go home tonight and tomorrow we will come back when he is due for his nap.” He said, not mentioning the pregnancy: he felt Juvia needed to know about it first. “Juvia made me promise to make his priorities, my own. So, we go home. She’s much better today.”

His friends nodded and Mirajane volunteered to stay the night with Juvia, then, if not with Urian and Gray thanked her; he’d hate Juvia to be alone even if she was not awake.

Leaving the hospital was hard, but Gray kissed Juvia’s lips and Urian gave his mother a big one on her cheek and gave her good-bye. Gray hated to leave her and he had to remind himself a million times their son had priority.

Arriving at the apartment, Urian got really excited about going home again, trying to grab all his toys at the same time and Gray chuckled whenever the boy took one and another fell from his hands. He heated dinner for them, fed Urian and then told the toddler it was time for a bath and then to go to bed.

“Bath!” Urian clapped his hand in happiness and went running to the bedroom while Gray put the dirty plates away, chuckling at his reaction. A few moments later, Urian returned to the kitchen, a cute frown on his face.

“What is it, little man?” Gray kneeled in front of his son.

“Mommy?” Urian tilted his head to the side in question, and his curls, just like Juvia’s, moved.

“Sorry, kiddo, just you and I for a couple of days.” Gray took his son into his arms and got up from the floor. “I miss her too, but I think we can make it work for a while, huh?” The boy’s frown deepen. “How about that bath now? With all your rubber ducks?”

“Duckies!” The boy cheered and seemed to forget about where Juvia was for a few moments.

**#**

Taking care of a child on his own was quite a challenge, Gray noticed, and he’d have to give Juvia much more credit for taking such good care of their son. It had been ten days since the Blue Moon and Juvia had still to wake up, but she was getting glowing reports from Polyuska – apparently Urian napping every afternoon on top of Juvia’s magic center made the process go much, much faster than only the water bags would. Their unborn child no longer had the job of making Juvia’s body stay together: she was strong enough to do it on her own.

Their children had saved her life (one was less than two years and the other wasn’t even born yet: oh, the things they could do once they were older…) and by consequence, his own – he wouldn’t know how to move on without her.

On the tenth day, Gray and Urian left the apartment to the hospital, like they had been doing every day and the boy had been babbling the whole way while his father nodded in agreement to whatever he was speaking.

The moment they entered Juvia’s room, though, Gray froze when he saw the bed empty. What happened? Did they take her to have some tests? Did she suddenly get worse? Oh, god… did she…?

“Urian?”

Gray spun to the direction of the voice so fast he probably distended some muscle. There, by the door of the small bathroom, stood Juvia in her hospital gown and using the IV support to stay up.

“Mommy!” Urian cheered, trying to weasel his way away from his father’s arms into the ground and when he finally was put to the ground, he ran to his mother, who kneeled and was clearly crying.

“Oh, my baby.” Juvia whispered and kissed the top of the boy’s head. “Oh, mommy missed you so much my darling.”

All Gray could do was stare at her and Urian’s reunion, trying to figure out if he was awake or if it was one of his traitors’ dreams, where he had her back only to wake up and find out she was still at the hospital.

“Gray-sama?” Gray blinked when he heard his name and saw that she was looking at him, waiting for some reaction from him. Well, far from him to disappoint her.

“You just had to go, save the day and almost give me a heart-attack, didn’t you?” His eyes stung when she offered him a big smile – he had almost lost that beautiful of hers forever – and then he kneeled next to their son and embraced them both. “You worried me too much, you stupid woman.”

“I’m sorry.” She whispered.

“It’s fine.” Gray touched her forehead with his and kissed her lips. “As long as you are here, it’s fine.” He tried to dry the stray tears that fell down his cheek. “Now come on up, you still need to go to bed and rest. You just spent ten days in some sort of magical coma.” He gently pulled Urian away from her to help her up.

“Ten days?” She gasped.

“Yeah.” Gray led her to the bed, pulling the IV with him and Urian was right next to her. “That’s what happens when you use most of your magic to summon and then to stop a tsunami.” He watched as she sat on the bed and put Urian next to her – the boy was almost taking off Gray’s pants with all the grabbing for attention to stay next to the person he loved the most in the world.

“I’m sorry.” She told him and kissed Urian’s cheek when he threw his arms around her shoulders and snuggled next to her. “I needed to.”

“I know.” Gray grabbed her hand and sat on the bed, facing her. “Just… let’ not do this again?”

“Let’s.” She giggled and Gray started to tell her what had happened during the past days, about how the urn was now at the depths of the ocean (Freed made sure it was not to be opened for another millennia), the members of the cult were scattered and how a good boy Urian was during the time they spent without her.

“I fulfilled my promise.” He told her. “I put him first.”

“Thank you.” Juvia smiled and put a hand on his cheek. “You were the perfect father he needed you to be.” Gray hummed in agreement, his head tilting a bit to the side, towards her hand. “Juvia can’t wait to be home.”

Remembering about her new pregnancy, Gray smiled at her. “I’ve been looking into some bigger houses.”

“Well, this little man here is getting too big to share a bedroom with his parents.” She tickled Urian’s belly and the boy laughed.

“Yeah, there’s that.” The Ice Mage agreed. “But, we are going to need _much_ more space in about seven months or so. Let me explain _exactly_ how you survived that loss of magic….”

**#**

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here it is, the final end of the story. It was supposed to be done by chapter two, but I just couldn’t resist it. I hope I didn’t spoil it for anyone, eh?
> 
> Well, the priests were a bit weak, right? Maybe Fairy Tail is just that strong (as we are seeing they are) and so was Calypso, but we have to take in consideration that she was a bunch of smoke and needed Juvia’s consent to enter her body (just like the demons from Supernatural), plus, one touch from her and Juvia summoned that tsunami. She was weak in her smoke form, that’s why Gray could make it go away, but if she had gotten in Juvia? Bye bye world.
> 
> Let me try to explain a bit what happened about Juvia getting pregnant: Nhoj told them they needed to come back to their time two weeks after they left, right? Well, by then Juvia already had Urian and, just like I said in this chapter, she had had her period a few days before Nhoj’s arrival and by the first day they were back, she was in her fertile period, exactly in time for Gray to get her pregnant enough so two months later when she almost used all of her magic to stop the tsunami, she wouldn’t have her body scattered in the water. So, it saved her life. Urian having an affinity to water was also a way to help her stay alive. So, yeah, Nhoj predicted all of that. Timey wimey stuff you get once you become a Whovian. HAHA
> 
> Anyway, sorry for the rambling! Thanks for the support!


End file.
